you go to the back of a line, you register on this day. you came forward during the grace period and registered on this day. you agreed to pay these fines. >> i am sorry, but i am watching the clock. that line is still in the united states. people do not go to their home countries. the back of the line actually is and other countries where people are waiting to come to america. that is my point. . . question. you testified about 5,000 people lost their lives in the arizona desert 1998 to pren and it is tragic and i share that sense of empathy that you have expressed in your testimony but i ask if you have contemplated or you know the number of americans who died at the hands of some of those who did make it across the desert as victims of crimes and are part of the drug culture that we heard from mr. gutierrez and the part of the violence

that comes in. do you have any idea how many died at the hands of those who made it across the desert? >> it's certainly true to say some who enter this country do so with crimal intent anding at in ways that harm others but that is dleerly not the majority of those entering the country illegally. the vast majority of those are good people who are looking for a decent way of life for themselves or their family. who want to contribute to the community or add to the life of the society. it's that individual that is of concern. certain isly a person who comes here with criminal intent or who harms another person, this is something that the law must address and needs to address. i was humbled to be able to celebrate the funeral mass for rob crentz.

there were 1,200 ranchers present for his funeral. it was a sad and painful moment for suzie his wife and their whole family and the whole community. this is tragic, we don't know exactly what happened but perhaps it was a drug smuggler and that is an unconscionable crime that needs to be addressed, that needs to be dealt with fairly and justly. on the other hand the person if it were a drug smuggler or a my grant who perm traded that crime, that is not characteristic of the number of people who are crossing the border. it's an entirely different people. >> you recognize the american people are in the multiples, thank you. >> i turn to conyers for his questions.

think mr. conyers is deferring to chairman burr who's recogn e recognized for five minutes. thank you. dean staver, i -- this issue of what is amnesty and what is not. what jimmy carter did was a -- was a blanket amnesty that defined a group of people and said they're okay, notwithstaing what they did. the law that ronaldeagan signed turned out to be seriously flawed, not because it gave a blanket amnesty. it invited individuals to apply, pay money and take english language in courses. it didn't have all the features

we have now, but it was -- it was a specific individual generatedegalization program that conferred a temporary status beforit confirmed a permanent res accident status. the flaws were that it didn't -- while it attempted to increase border prol numbers it didn't secure the border. most of awe, the ini forms that he keeps in his files wer not an effective process of providing workers, and so we have a problem compounded at

this particular time. you mentioned three alternatives. there's a fourth alternative. it's the alternative we seem to be locked into, which is really about the issue and leaving the status quo with all of the problems that exist, including the exploitation and the continued magnets that exist and created this situation. but dr. land, i really did appreciate your testimony, and i take your point. it doesn't deal with that part of the population that my colleague mr. gutierrez referred, to but it's certainly a significant part of the issue, the control of the border. the problem is the securing of the border. i did not take what you were saying to we now spend greater

time and effort to figure out how to truly secure the border. we know awe kinds of efforts have been taken. we know to someextent it's far more difficult to cross the border than it used to be. i took your comments to be a logical process as we pass legislation that focuses at its initial stages on an effort to do betteat the border. that you create measures for determining the test. and when that test is met, a process that allows and you at the same time implement the kind of employer verification system that tells people about legal status and when that system is designed to be implemented you allow a process where people under the test that you've outlined for an earned legal

program, payment of fines, tax issues, back of the line, comes to being. it isn't that you -- sometimes people use the argument secure the border as an argument to do nothing else and i want to clarify -- >> thank you. your notion is a total scheme that puts that as the first test, but then at the point where it's reasonable to conclude that's been achieved, these other operations move into effect. >> yes, sir. think that the effort last time as global as it was in 2006 has shown there is not a sufficient trust level so you're going to have to do it sequentially, but you can do it with the law. once they have been met th it tligers the second part of the law which would focus on the -- on the pathway to earned citizenship or legal status, and

i thi i think that part of border security is going to be we're going to have to have much tougher laws on those. you have to take awayny excuse they have and so i'm going to get really radical here. i ooh even going to suggest that at we really need is a tamperproof biometric social security card for everybody who wants to be employed in the united states. i know people get all up set about a social security card -- >> i don't. >> we all have them. when i go teach for my best friend, i have to show him my social surity card before they employ me some of we already have one. if you had a biometric tamperproof social security card this wouldessen the borer. if they managed to get across, if you told the employer you're going to get six months in jail

if you hire somebody that doesn't have a card, they won't be able to survive. >> i think my time has expired. >> gentleman's time has expired. >> thank you very much. as a person who was the republican floor manager and got the republican votes to pass it, i recall very well the scussions in the long period of time in passing that bill. i must say, however, from my friend from california, it did apply to those who entered this country legally and whose lgal stat status was overstayed. so long as that illegal status occurred four years before the date of the bill. so, yes. >> my point was that it didn't apply. my point was nothing in that bill dealt with trying to remedy that problem from continuing. >> well, all right. the point i'm trying to make is

it applied to all people who were in illegal status before the signing of the bill so my first question would be to all of you and hopefully short answers. to whom should this apply, meone who's just gottener of the border, someone who's been here two years, three years, four years, five years? our situation back then was as a matter those people who had put down roots in the community ought to be treated differently than those who had not. if i could ask you just one, two, three, four -- well -- >> that would be for your to determine. >> no. i'm asking your opinion. >> i would say you have to have a sliding scale. >> where would it start? >> those who have been here 20 years, for instance, would have less of a time of waiting -- >> okay. >> -- and we would move up. you'd have to set some arbitrary date >> i know. i'd like to know what your opinion is. when does someone have sufficient roots in the community? onyear, two years, three years, four years? >> that's probably above my pay

grade, sir. >> all right. bishop. >> could you turn your microphone -- yeah. >> reform means to bring people out of the shadows. and to the extent that we can do that comprehensively, that would be our encouragement. >> so i guess you would say if they'd been here a day? >> certainly they should be some cutoff. >> what should that be? >> i would say mnimum perhaps a year. >> sir. >> congressman, i don't have a imagine it bullet as to when that time would be, but i would agree there would be some kind of sliding scale. however, because that is a difficult question, and there are many difficult questions, that question alone and any others that we face should not be used to obfuscate or delay a passage of some kind of -- >> with all due respect, sure, i'm not asking to obfuscate. this is a very difficult issue. i spen ten years trying to get it done the first time around, and these are the difficult things we have to do. and when you're talking about trying to have a balance between what you say is fair treatment

for those who have been here illegally, that is, imgration, illegal immigrants and the rule of law, you have to determine that. and so, my question is do you think that is a public policy issue we have to deal with? that is, shouldn't there be differentiation between people who have been here five years and just got here, number one, and number two, do you not understand that if you make it so close to the time of illegal entry it encourages others to come in the future and you will never have a perm nuclear weapon law? >> i agree with you on that point clearly. and certainly i think you do need to have some kind of scale, and you have to be careful that if you say you're going to provide this that you don't have all of a sudden a flood of immigration that's illegal that people want to take advantage of what we're trying to address here. >> let me ask this question of the three of you. when we passed this law in 1986 we made the statement it would be a one time only because we thought it was a o-time-only

phenomenon and that one of the reasons we did that was we did not want to encourage continuing illegal immigration. and we were afraid that if it were viewed as a sequential thing, do one now, do one in 20 years, another one in 20 years, it would defeat the purpose of securing the border. do you understand that and is that something we ought to concerned about? >> yes, sir. that's why i said border security first. and when i mean secure the border i mean you have control of the border. you decide. >> how do we answer the question that we did this once before, sa the it was going to bethe only time we did it and now we want to do it again? >> the federal government didn't enforce e law and haven't enforced the law for 24 years. that's what's bred disrespect for the law under republican and democratic administrations. our own federal government has chosen not to enforce etc. own laws. >> bishop? >> illegal immigration is not good for anyone. it's not good for the person crossing the desert at risk to their own life. it's not good for a country not

to know who is crossing its border. so definitely if there is an earned pathway for those who are here, it will provide them legal entry, ithere is a worker program connected to the reform, so that there is a legal way for people to come. >> should that worker program allow them to bring their families with them, or should bit a temporary worker program in which they come to the unit states for let's say ten months out of the year and then return to their home country after ten months, although they could then return in the following year? >> the church has always been insistent on family integration. the separation of families is not helpful. it's not helpful to the family. it's not helpful to the society. so to whatever extent possible, family should be kept together in a worker program if that's feasible. >> so they should be treated better than our men and women in the armed forces who are separated for 10, 12, 18 months

deployment. >> well, that's an entirely different situation. >> i understand. >> it's not analogous, really. >> the other thing i would a you, do you recall the s.a.w. program and the r.a.w. program in the 1986 law? do you think that worked well? >> i know that there are concerns in terms of, for example, in yuma, which is a huge agricultural workforce. and the need to bring workers over the border. and there's been great concern about the fact that they have to build housing and they have to find a way to retain people when really the intention of people is to go back home. they want to be back home with their families. >> that's a different thing. the only thing i'm just trying to mention for you and for my colleagues is we put a seasonal agricultural worker program and a replenishmentgricultural program in the 1986 law. as opsed to a specific

temporary worker program. unfortunately, the s.a.w./r.a.w. program had the greatest amount of fraud of any program inow and we were not able to police it, and many people made assertions that they had worked in agriculture during the period of time we required who hadn't. and it became a backdoor way of getting in the united states even though you didn't have -- you didn't meet the qualifications. i've overstayed my time. i just want to say this, though. as we talk about treating people fairly, i have to also think about the people in mexico, the people in africa, the people in the philippines, the people in europe, the the people all over the world who have followed the law. in the 1970s we changed our law to have a worldwide quota systemwhich was supposed to mean that everybody had an equal chance to get in the united states. and when you have rampant illegal immigration, significantly from any portion of the world, it -- it makes it unfair to those who have waited

in line. and i have to say this. as we go forward -- and i hope we do do something -- as we go forward, you should also think of what it does or says to those people who followed the law, who have been waiting ten years, to 20 yea in the philippines to come here, in africa to come here, in mexico to come here, and what does it say to them if we say you were the saps and those that broke the law came here are frankly going to be treated diffently? and i'm not saying that's the answer, but i say we also have to understand what fairness, what justice means to those who did follothe law. thank you very much. >> gentleman yields back. i understand that miss jackson lee is prepared for her questions and will be recognized for five minutes. >> madam chair, thank you so very much for this very important hearing. i could not acknowledge the

clergy here today without acknowledging in my hometown of houston, reverend clements of e national baptist convention and bishop kyles among many others who have led a very potent and important convening of souls who have supported and understood the ethics and the humanitarianism of real comprehensive immigration reform. and i' humbled by the sincerity of my colleague from california, and i believe that he is sincere. but i think it is important to maybe go against the grain of a familiar refrain in a song that says, as i remember, tiptoe through the tulips. and i think that we are tiptoeing through the tulips. i would adhere to the fact that once a law is passed, we should be meticulous in how it's implemented. reverend land, i believe that

your controversial statement to some should be on the table. but we must have it on the table where we can all discuss it in its implementation and so you can hear the cons for those of us who may not agree and we can hear the fors. but the good news would be that we have movedforward. i've worked for a very large nondenominational church to give them relief for one of their evangelistic workers who didn't meet a standard to get aisa to be able to come in, and we attempted to change the law, i think we worked on it because it said a catholic for a catholic, a baptist for a baptist, and we said it should just be a religious worker so that people could come in and help to save souls. but the greatest impediment for passing legislation -- and i refer legislation that i

have, safe american comprehensive immigration act, and i refer to one that has drawn ny, many responses, hr-4321, i call it ortiz, which you would be shocked. maybe you've read it. please read it. it has pages and pages and pages of border security provisions, ones tt if you took a moment to read it you would understand that we are reasonable, we're responsible, and we're compassionate. so the one major impediment is the republican party. every single republican is committed to denying, denouncing, and insuring that this president fails on immigration reform, that this congress fails on immigration reform, and you tell me, how do we overcome that kind of mind-set? nothing you can say here today -- you could take wings and fly around this room. you cod create the opportunity

and president land is looking for an opportunity to fly. as they say, let me fly where e eagles fly. you could fly with the eagles, and you would not get them to get st the political schism that they have. let me share with you some numbers that i want to put into the record. 1994, 6.9%, 1995, 5.59%, 1996, 5.41%, 1997, 4.94%, 1998, 4.5%, 1999, 4.22%, 2000, 3.97%. u.s. department of labor unemployment figures. i was a ranking member of the immigration subcomttee during that period when republicans were in charge under newt gingrich and under the subsequent speaker of the house. we could not move immigration reform, and we had the lowest unemployment that we could ever have. it bothers me now to use the

excuse of unemployment for that. could i ask the clergy quickly to -- and if i could start with president land, what do we do about senator mccain and senator graham, who committed to us to work together in a bipartisan way? i don't think this should be a single-party issue. it should be an issue for america. and let me remind everyone that the idea of immigration reform is to take care of those who are stranded here in this country. president land, what should we do with that mind-set that no immigratn reform will pass as long as i'm a republican in the united states congress? which i am not. >> well, i think congressman lee, my home -- you represent my hometown of houston, and -- >> good to see you. >> the texas pastors council just -- it had a press

conference last week -- issued a statement on comprehensive migration reform signed by a lot of conservative baptist pastors and was a multiethnic statement dealing with the texas legislature and their attempt to implement some form of the arizona law. and i know some of those churches. those churches are filled with people who vote republican. i think frankly the country is ahead of you on this issue. i think with all due rpect the countris significantly ahead of you on this issue. >> excellent. >> and they're waiting for adership, they're waiting for statesmanship. i believe th there is -- there is -- the foundation and the building materials and the blueprint for a sen triggs comprehensive immigration reform package is there. it's out there in the country waiting to be constructed by ople who are willing to be statesmen. as you know, churchill said politicians think about the next

election. statesmen think about the next generation. this issue is rending the social fabric of the nation. the arizona law and the attempts to implement the arizona law shows there's great frustration with the lackf federal government comprehensive immigration reform and the federal government enforcing its own laws. it breeds disrespect for the rule of law when the foft ignores its own w. any fair observation of what's happened in the last 24 years is that more often than not our own federal government has just ignored its own laws when it comes to border security and when it comes to immigration enforcement. and let's understand, as well, that we as a nation bear some responsibility for that because we are a government the people by the people and for the people. we've had two signs up at the border for at least the last two decades. one says "no trpassing" and

the other says "help wanted." the vast majority of these peopleave broken the law in order to come here and work. >> absolutely. >> whereas your domestic lawbreakers break the law in order not to work. they've been able to do it because the jobs are the -- and by the way, i've seen studies that show that undomented workers lower the wage ges of those at the lower end of wage scale by approximately 10%. all workers, documented and undocumented. so that if we had comprehensive immigration reform it would have the impact of raising the wage scale by about 10% at the lower echelons, where 10% makes a real dierence. and would make a difference in the living standard of those who are in the lower echelons of our society. so what i'm doing is i'm saying this is not an issue of right and left. it's not an issue of republican and democrat. it's an issue of right and

wrong. encouraging people to talk to their congressmen and their senators, i didn know what the texas houston pastors were doing until they informed me and they said thank you foryour leadership in orlando, and we're going to respond to what's being attempted in austin. and i can assure you that the churches -- that the pastors that are there, a sigma joe torre of them vote republican. >> the jept l lady's time has expired. >> i thank you very much. >> gentlelady from california, miss waters, is recognized. >> tnk you very much, madam chairwoman. i appreciate your holding this hearing today. it's very important that we create a discussion and a debate about immigration reform. and it's very important that the government accept -- the federal government -- responsibility for immigration reform. i'm pleased that we have

witnesses here today. several times i've heard my colleagues talk about trying to create a reasonable discussion of where republicans and democrats can get together and really talk about this issue in ways that will help to solve the problem. but i'm finding, as i learn about some of the reasons for opposition to immigration reform, is that we are so far apart philosophically that i don't know how we're going to be able to really get together and have this debate and this discussion. let me -- i was intrigued by the testimony of james r. edwards jr., ph.d. today and this discussion about the ability for christians to display and implement compassion and mercy

but that governments can't do that, that governments should not attempt to use this civil responsibility in that way that it can be more harmful than not. let me find out a little bit more. to ask myself, find out who this gentleman is. and as we understand it, you, sir, as a fellow at the center for immigration study. is that right? >> yes, ma'am. >> are you familiar with the case of eduardo gonzalez? >> no, ma'am. >> eduardo gonzalez i guess is being deployed on his third tour of duty th the u.s. navy. and he has or will be serving on the "uss harry truman" in the persian gulf. hi wife is not a u.s. citizen, and they face deportation, and

their deportation was advocated foand sought out by the center where you did your studying, your -- where you were a fellow. do you support that kind of deportation of the family of someone who is deployed to serve to protect the united states of america? >> well, not knowing the facts of that specific case, i hesitate to comment directly on that. but i would say in general that there are elements in the law that allow exceptions in certain cases, and that may well qualify as the exception. >> but the center advocated for his deportation. do you believe that someone who serves in the united states armed forces should have to worry about their family being

deported because they are not -- the wife, the child are not citizens? do you think that's right? or is it government should not be compsionate enough to consider the plight of the wife and the child because that's not our role, as you have articulated in your testimony about the role of government or the -- >> what i've said in the testimony is that it's clear from scripture the role of government properly is more on the justic side. and certainly we have elements of compassion or mercy that play out in our -- are reflected in our government, which i would agree, as congressman gutierrez noted earlier, that should be reflected to an extent. and things such as in general where it applies very

evenhandedly, such as the role of due process or punishment that fits the offense. >> in your testimony, if i may, in closing, this is what you say. "it would be unwise to misapply biblical principles in any public policy area. this is true with respect to immigration. immigration," you say, "is one of those issues in which scripture does not detail al public policy. this issue differs from clear-cut biblical preaccepts such as prohibiting murder, stealing, or perjury. thus we haveto consider such biblical principles to appropriately apply carefully -- thus we have to consider which biblical principles do appropriately apply, carefully assess the situation at hand, consider this nation's experience and unique characteristics, judiciously

estimate it will various policy options and then exercise prudent judgment." i'm clear about that. that puts us a long way apart. and let me tell you why, particularly with this separation issue. i'm in the process of reading three books right now. one is known as "the known world." the other is known as "the wench." and of course i'm reading the biography of the british legislator and abolitionist mr. wilbur force. all of these books are about slavery. and i have decided to spend a lot of time trying to understand not only what took place during slavery, but the implications of that even today. one of the most vicious and heartwrenchi components of slavery was the separation of families where children were sold off, where fathers were sold off.

and when we look at this immigration issue, it emerges again that families coulbe separated, children could be separated from their parents. what do you think government's role is in looking at this family situation where families could be separated? what's the role of christianity? what's the role of religion in looking at this? and what is government's role? >> the gentlelady's time has expired. by unanimous consent, we'll grant the gentleman 30 seconds to respond. >> where do i start? in general, i'd say that there's a distinction between those who knowingly broke a law and took a chance and would be separated by their family if they were caught and held to certain -- whatever consequences, be it imprisonment or whatever. i mean, it's the same story as an embezzler or any other person

who breaks the law, would be separated from their family members. the person who comes here as a lawful permanent resident played by the rules and is separated because of the quota of waiting the turn of his spousend minor children because the citizens who came he before him are joined more quickly with their -- their more extended family members. to me, that's a family separation issue of greater import to the government. and it would be more compassionate to join the spouses and minor children than to prioritize more distant family members? >> the gentleman's time is exred. i know dr. land has to leave in about 15 minutes. so i'm hoping we can get to all our members.

>> attached to my testimo that was submitted to the committee in appendix five is principles for just immigration reform where we try -- dr. barrett duke, who has a ph.d. in old testament studies, and i who have a ph.d. in theoloologtheolo take the biblical teachings and apply them to what we perceive as being an ethical immigration policy. it's much too long to go into, but i would refer you to it. >> thank you, and we will commend that to our committee. mr. gutierrez is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. i want to go back to dr. richard land. temper proof biometric social security card. it's in our bill. we want to make sure, because i agree with you totally. you want to end illegal immigration, tell them they can't get a job in america. now, i'm saying that. i'm about as pro immigrant as you can get. tell them they can get a job in america, that we're going to end illegal immigration and

we're going to end it once and for all. let's not -- let's just confess to ourselves. 1986 was a good start. but it was a fraud bill. and it was in essence amnesty to the extent that people applied -- you have been here four years, you sow up at an office, you go through a quasibackground check, and guess what, 18 mont later, you go from temporary resident to permanent resident. the law was passed in 1986. i got elected to congress in 1993. in 1994, i started at the beginning of a process that brought up 50,000 people in my district to become american citizens from that bill. so you see how quickly people went from 1986, they didn't open up the first office till 1998, but by 1994, they were already applying for american citizenship. that's pretty much it. that is not what our bill says today. what our bill says today, you have to go to back of the line. people keep -- they make fun of this back of the line. it's nothing to be made fun of.

the back of the line is a long time away from you ever becoming an american citizen and gaining permanency in the united states of america, because what we do is we're family friendly. so we say all of those people that are waiting in line, during the next five years they will receive their visas. in the next five years, in any comp henszive bill, you must take -- it is immoral, wrong, unethical to make someone wait 25 years to bring their bother to america when we know that will they're on the brink of dying, that their life is all but done. that's not our law. our law is to bring families together. so what we say is let's put them -- and once everybody that's in line and has been waiting lawly in line is taken care of, then you begin wit those that are undocumented. but you place them somewhere in the line. and all i want to say to everybody is think about it a moment, think about it a moment, if we create a system that doesn't allow people to ultimately become american citizens, reason we undermining our country?

isn't that what we want is people to come here, to invest themselves, not only economic but socially but in terms of their heart and their soul by saying this is my country and adopting the united states and following that position? that's why we're not like other countries. that's why america has become the cemetery of so many foreign languages. think about it. germans came, buried germans. polish came, buried italian. we continue burying languages. english continues to be the lauage of the nation. why? because we've allowed them to integrate themselves fully. so this is really -- i want to thank you all because this is really -- we agree with you, biometric, leaders of our faith-based community begin to speak simple, clear facts. we need that. we need dr. land and bishop, we need to make sure we secure that border and do everything. and if we need to get metrics to

figure it out, let's figure out what those bet meth ricks are so we can secure that border. but we need to secure everything totally. we agree with that. we need to punish those employs that exploit them. we agree. every democrat here on this side is ready to put them to jail for long jail sentences if they hire undocumented workers and illegal workers in this country. now, after hearing all of this, you say, well, what's the problem, luis? you're for securing the border. you're for a biometric card. you're for putting employers in jail. that's going to be the solution to ending illegal -- what's the problem, luis? the problem is what do we do with the 12 million undocumented workers that are already here? and you know what, you've heard it again here today so i want to thank especially i want to thank the reverend matthew staver. it isn't amnesty. you know what they've done with amnesty? th've changed it from a seven-letter word to the dirtiest four-letter word there

can be. if today were halloween instead of kids knocking on their door and saying boo, they would say amnesty as though to sca us once again. that's what they've done with the word, a word that has no relationship with what we are doing. what we are sang is, qui simply, now, you know, it's become the norm here not to speak about charity, not to speak about forgiveness, not to speak about -- look, i'm not a theologian. i didn't come here with my bible. i'm a good catholic, you know. but i tell you, i learned two things, to love god above everything else and to love my neighbor as i love myself. and let me tell you, i cannot fulfill my principle if when i sit in the pew and i know the person sitting in that pew next to me is undocumented and i don't love them as much. when i register my kids to go to school -- and this is not hyperbole. when i register them in first and second and third grade, when i take them to school, i know there are undocumented ildren. when i go to teacher/parent conferences, when i go to the park, everywhere i go, they are there. they are an integral part of my

fe. they're so ingrained in our life. they are our neighbor not only in the spiritual sense but in the factual sense. they live next to us. they live among us. 4 million american citizen children. hundreds of thousands of american citizen wives. hundreds of thousands. and husbands who are married to undocumented. do you really propose that the government go out there and destroy these famies? do you know what it would do to the fabric of american society to take 12 million people and rip them asunder? it is not reasonable. so what i suggest to all of you is that we meet, again, that this testimony is good but you guys got a little different thing than most people that come here. you know, you have a mission in your life. you have different objectives and different goals in terms of what you wanto do. i want to see if you can help us reach those goals. and for that i thank you for the wonderful testimony here this morning. >> the gentleman's time is expired. mr. smith wants to catch his breath.

oh, he's ready? the ranking member of the full committee, mr. smith, is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. mr. land, let me direct my first question to you. and i apologize for being gone during your testimony because of having to attend another committee's mark-up. but as i understand it, you do have some concerns about chain migration, and to the extent that you didn't elaborate on that, could you tell us what aspects of chain migration you would eliminate and which ones you would keep and to the extent that you agree with it, what would you substitute for chain migration? would you put a greater emphasis on those who have the education and skills we need in america, for example? >> well, in appendix five of my testimony, which is attached, i talk about chain migrati, the process of bringing extended members of one's family to the united states once one family member is settled here is of significant concern to us and many people in the nation. if we are to allo millions of

people to remain here, we must find a way to limit the influx of extended family members so that we leave room in our nation for future immigrants who have no family here. we propose that chain migration be limited to spouses and their natural or adopted children. we recommend that hardship exceptions be part ofhe limits to enable children to bring elderly parents to the u.s. who have no means of support in their home countries in order to maintain our commitment to bringing in additional immigrants, we recommendthe number of family members who can be united with family members in the u.s. be subbed to an annual cap. >> thank you. >> the reason for that is otherwise you get into numbers that are extremely large. right. okay. thank you. >> a hard decision, but that's the decision we recommend. >> right. thank you for that answer, and it is appreciated. bishop, i know that the conference of catholic bishops does not -- or claims not to support open borders. my question to you is what

illegal immigrants would you agree to deport or not admit in the case of those individuals that we might send home, would you agree to send individuals home, for example, who had been convicted of crimes? would you agree to send individuals home who were working illegay in the united states? i want to give you an opportunity to show that you're not just for open borders, that you do agree to enforce some immigration laws. >> yes. clearly, the bishops of the united states do not support open borders. we call for border security to address appropriate issues that are concerns along the border. for example, drug trafficking, human trafficking, weapons smuggling. these are all serious issues. >> what about the category of individuals i asked specifically about? would you depo or support deporting those individuals who had been convicted of crimes and those individuals who were working illegally in the united states?

>> i think we would certainly support a judicial decision that someone should be deported or -- >> would you depor individuals in those go categories? >> i missed the second category. the categor was those who have coitted crimes -- >> those who have been convicted of crimes and those who have been found to have been working illegally in the united states. there seems to be bipartisan agreement on those two categories of individuals. i just wondered if you all as a conference also supported the deportation of those individuals. >> what we support is comp henszive immigration policy reform. >> right. what about individuals -- >> with regard to deportation, clearly this is something that the government has to determine, who should be deported. >> no. i understand that. my question is does the conference support deporting individuals who have been convicted of crimes and who have been found to be working illegally in the united states? yes or no. does the conference have a view on that? >> that really isn't -- i mean, the position of the conference is to reform our immigration

policy. now, the issue of deportation is affected by a comprehensive immigration policy. >> you're not willing to state those individuals should be deported. it sounds to me if you're not, then i don't know who you would agree to deport if any. >> it's not a matter of d agreeing to deport. the government determines who is deported. the church doesn't. we wouldn't stand in the way. what we do is try to assist people on the other side of the border who have been deported. that's what the church -- >> i don't think i'm going to get a fur answer to my question, but i thank you for your response. any remaining time i have i'm going to yield to the ranking member. but mr. edwards, a question for you. do you consider comprehensive immigration reform so-called is equivalent of amnesty or not and if so, why? >> i do consider it amnesty and because the parameters of what is proposed in the 2006 bills in

the senate and 2007, the most recent proposals on the table, they have about the same exact requirements, a de minimis sort of fine or fee, you know, some modest steps toward english, but there's no real requirement of acquisition of english language. there's -- you know, a number of other things are pretty small potoes and exactly like congressman king said the -- those things are actually benefits to the people who -- in the most part are benefits to the people who are the benefits of the legalization. and that's -- they're going to be better off if they learn english. they're gog to be in better stead for the fute. if you wanted to look at rea

things and take into account what congressman gutierrez said, that, yes, generally, you wa everybody who comes here legal, even people illegally, to form a positive emotional and cultural attachment to this nation and a loyalty, a political or triotic loyalty to this nation. but that doesn't mean that everybody should be able to go the entire route to citizenship. you may csider that there are disabilities attached to people who are beneficiaries, and you've got to sort out all the distinctions. i mean, somepeople who have been here 20 years, some people 20 days, some people have education, some people don't, and some people have citizen children, some don't. you've got to design something that sets up all of that and deals with each of those

specific groups in a way, and some of those may benefit from naturalization, citizenship, but others may not but you need to think long and hard about exactly who should be held to what standard. >> gentleman -- >> thank you, mr. edwards. thank you, madam chair. >> madam chair, may i have two minutes? >> without objection, yes, sir. >> thank you. i think i've technically got to be the one to ask for the two minutes, but i'll be happy to do so. >> we're very cooperative in the running of the hearings. >> i just again want to thank everybody here for being here on this important issue and again encourage you to continue this dialogue. it's very critically important. more than i review immigration laws throughout the history of america, and we've had many, every time we have taken an anti-immigration position, it has been the wrong side of history. when i was recently in jerusalem in january and february this year, i came across a letter

that was startling. it was from a member of congress to our then president. it was regarding this ship that was filled with people fleeing the holocaust, the jews that were fleeing hitler's regime, and they were circumstance nlg the atlantic, wanting to land on the shores of america. he wrote a letter to the president, urging him not to move forward with immigration reform, urging him to deny that ship's entrance, which we eventually did. the same arguments that were raised in that let rer the same arguments we hear today with regards to jobs, diluting our economy, diluting our culture. we were on the wrong side of history then, and i urge us not to be on the wrong side of history now. thank you. >> thank you, dean. i recognize mr. gonzalez from -- colleague from texas for five minutes. ? thank you very much,madam chair. my questions wilbe directed to dr. edwards, and i'm going to be reading from your written testimony as well as some previous remarks attributed to you. "we fairly conclude judgment to

construct an immigration policy for 21st century america based on a handful of scripture passages taken out of context." in your written testimony today you made reference to some of those, and you also comment, "but to attempt to requireivil authority to display the same manner of mercy or compassion that individual christians are commanded to display would be ludicrous. yet that is what ctain advocates in the immigration debate unreasonably demand. i'm not real sure where you make reference to as certain advocates making that kind of a demand, because that's not been the testimony of the other witnesses here today, nor of any member here on the democratic side. but let me ask you this. you say, but do these high standards apply to civil government? and then you say to an extent. so i'm going to take some of those passages, and you know what, i don't think you're entirely wrong. you're substantially wrong but not entirely wrong.

so to care for the least of these my brother. all right. maybe government should don't that. maybe civilian authorities shouldn't do that. love your enemies. difficult thing to do in time of war. bless those who curse you. we don't really turn the other cheek all the time. love mercy. walk humbly. no one may vote for me if i love mercy and walk humbly. maybe you're right. you left one out. to act justly. to ak act justly. i think that does have application, whether it's in the religious sphere or whether it's in government service. would you agree to act justly is an objective or a goal that should be sought by all? >> well, earlier in the testimony i did cite micah 6:8 in full where it does say act justly, and i fully agree that -- >> i'm quoting you. >> yes, sir. >> because act justly seems to be one where you would find a lot of disagreement that it may not have an application as we

form public policy here in congress. to act justly. actually, that's what i thought we were all elected to do, fundamentally. so you would agree that that's one passage, whether taken out of context or not, has application in what we seek to do here today. to act justly. >> that is one passage, and, in fact, it is not out of context because there are so many other passages, and the reference point is scripture best taken is to scripture interprets itself. >> to act justly. >> you have to take it as a whole, and it is ve clear from scripture that the principle of justice and acting justly is fully in order. but it's for individual christian -- >> so you're -- that is long answer to say yes, you would agree with my proposition to act

justly, is something we suld all seek regdless of context, regardless of our roles. right? is the present immigration law on the books just? is it fair? is it just? >> in general. it's got a lot of weaknesses because it's a political decision. but it's -- it has in general elements of justice. it is thought through and in many regards it allows for exceptions, kind of merciful exceptions on a case-by-case basis such as parole -- >> let me ask you, is it just to view the 12 million workers and their families in this country as someone that is leer illegally without any chance of remaing in this country? because it appears to me that you agree with some on the other side of aisle that anything short of deportation would be nesty. because that's all you have

provided us today. for the 12 million workers and their family, and they're all not from mexico, by the way, or south of the border, one size would fit all, that they would be deported. is that justic >> no, sir. >> and so you would agree that we need to reform our laws and find exaly what the other witnesses have spoken to today, find an answer or solution that is fair and just. and we've been talking about an earned pathway to legal status that does include penalty. in every courtroom in the united states, whether it's administrative, crinal, or civil, where there are penalties and punishments, there are gradations, not everyone -- it's not one size fits all. and people are basically also placed on a probationary period. if they don't comply, then the full import of the law or

punishment or consequence would be visited on. but what i'm hearing from the other side and from you today, it's not just, and it is not fair. and that's what we're attempting to do here today. so i welcome and i appreciate the testimony of the other witnesses, a i hope that we can move forward. and i yield back. >> thank you. the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from -- >> may i respond? >> i think that would be fair. by unanimous consent, the gentleman is granted an additional 30 seconds so you may respond. >> thank you. what i was trying to say earlier is very much in line with what you're pointing out, you cannot treat all of the 11 million currently illegal aliens exactly the same because some have been here 20 years, others have been here 20 days. some have families, some don't. vom u.s. citizen children, others have no children.

you've got to design very specific penalties according to each of those categories of circumstance. that would be the prudent approach rather than saying everybody gets to stay here forever and become a u.s. citizen regardless of whether you just crossed any border or whether you overstayed a visa or whatever. i think exactly as congressman gutierrez pointed out earlier, it would be well in order to deal with the problem of visa oversts. >> the gentleman's time has expired. and the gently day from california, miss chu, is recognized for five minutes. >> i'd like to ask some questions pertaining to labor and jobs. and first i'd like to ask dr. edwards and then have a response from reverend staver. i'm particularly disturbed by your testimony, dr. edwards, where you state that harvard economist george berhas has

attributed immigration with directly reducing the yearly average native born men's wages by 40%, and i'm d distushed because you only tell part of the story. citing the statistic alone is misleading because you failed to mention that while immigration reduces the wages of native workers by 3.4% over the short run, he finds that immigration has no effect on such wages over the long run. in fact, it's a 0% effect on such wages. and you also fail to mention that the majority of economists who write on this issue, such as david carr, giovanni perry, rachel freeburg, jennifer hunt, gerald james, differ from boarhaus and conclude that immigration has actlly had a positive effect on the wages of most if not all americans, and this is because, for one, immigrts buy things and increase demand on products and services, secondly, immigrants tend to work in industries that, like agriculture and landscaping and certain parents of the u.s. would become unviable without

their labor, and thirdly, immigrants tend to complement american workers ratherhan directly compete against them. and let's just take the example of agriculture. we do have exceedingly high unemployment levels right now, but for all the unemployment out there, americans are not running back to the fields to do certain manual labor. and this has been highlighted by the take our jobs campaign being run by the united farm workers and discussed on the stephen colbert show. farm workers are saying to america, you want our jobs, come take it. but after months of advertising this particular campaign where they actually encouraged people to come take these jobs, only 60 people signed up and only three have made it to the fields. and, in fact, there are estimates that there are 2.5 million undocumented farm workers and their familiesn the u.s., but without them, we don't grow citrus, berries,

tomato tomatoes, and other fruit. ou food would not be able to compete with the cheaper food fromverseas, and if our farms go away, it's not just farm work that goes away, it's all the jobs that go along with it, such as packaging, processing, trucking, accounting, advertising. that all goes away, and these are jobs that are actually held by americans. in other words, if you send the farm workers home, you eliminate millions of american jobs. any farmer will tell you that. so, dr. edwards, what would you have to say about the fact that most labor economistins have fod that immigration has had a positive effect on the wages of americans, and also if we lost the undocumented farm workers, would you still be in favor of rounding them up and shipping themome, considering so many americans in complementary jobs would lose their jobs? where would we get the people to perform the jobs of farm

workers? >> again, where do i start? if you take boarhaus' wor as a whole, including his entire work, his book called "heaven's door" and other of his scholarly publications -- i've read a good bit of boarhaus and other economists in general -- this is the case that where there are more people in the labor force there are lower wages. where there are the ability to substitute capital for labor, that is mechanicization, which happened in the tomato industry, we eed up with fewer jobs in california particularly and the tomato industry, but they were higher-paying jobs, they were better-quality jobs, there was much more productivity and output. and this is a much more

complicated subject than i c answer in 30 seconds. but the truth is that there are plenty of people who would, if the wages naturally were to rise because of the tighter labor market, might be attracted to different sectors. maybe not as stoop labor but for other mechanized jobs in the agriculture sectr. >> reverend staver? >> thank you. i think the idea that if you just simply -- this is not -- that this is going to adversely affect the economy is an oversight, because anybody who's lived in florida or texas or some of these other agricultural states -- and i was raised in florida -- knows that there's a lot of vegetables and flowers and agriculture that's grown there, and a lot of these individuals are illegal. they're undocumented workers. if you all of a sudden ship them back to wherever they have originated from, you're simply

not going to have those fields and those employers filled with individuals clamoring to go out therand give us what we enjoy as americans when we eat a watermelon or a tomato or have salads. those come from someplace. they don't come out of thin air. and if we were just to simply ship everyone back, that's going to have a negative impact o our economy and on our way of life. i think that what we ultimately see is that argument being used throughout history. we have continually addressed this issue of immigration. we have historically been opposed to immigration against various kinds of identifiable groups, whether they are italians at o particular time that have our disfavor, whether they're asians that have our disfavor or japanese or chinese or other people of asian descent or jews during the holocaust, now it seems as though it's the latinos. and those primarily coming from mexico. every time we've had that issue we've always raised the issue that if we allow these

individuals they're going to ta our jobs. historically that has been ablutely proven incorrect. moreover, i think we ne to not stereotype every one of these that are illegal or undocumented workers or immigrants here. that's not just mexicans. it's not just italians. there are some other individuals from all different kinds of descents, from all different spectrums of the world. and we can't just have this cookie-cutter approach to simply say because they will affect our jobs we will ship them all back overas. i think that's not appropriate. it not a just, not a moral, not an ethical approach. >> the gentlelady's time has expired. we have, smaflt, aas a matter o all of the members have had an opportunity to ask questions. i understand miss jackson lee has a unanimous consent request. >> i ask unanimous consent to conclude with a comment i did not get a chance for my opening comment. i just want mod make one brief comment. >> without objection, the

gentlelady is granted one minute. >> thank you. to all of the participants and panelists, let me thank you very much. and president land, because of our houston connection, let me make it very clear how excited i am about the bipartisanship of our congregations, many of whom i worship with, and of course many constituents in my own district are republicans because they're americans. what i would ask, as you proceed, and what i wanted the action item to be is to be ever pressing on those names and others classified in one party, i'm talking to everyone, to give them the message that you're giving, otherwise we will not move forward, and to give dr. edwards a rebuttal answer to what he has articulated, because with much respect, it is wrong. when we had low unemployment, republicans blocked us from moving. and i'm speaking not of the constituen but of the elected body. what i would pray for, and i truly pray for it, that we distinguish the 12 million

documented here in the country. that is where the crisis is, and we made it very clear, put them on the back of the line, let them work. when they work, others work. it is well-known. so my challen to you and my question, and i would like to be part of it, is to convince dr. edwards, because he carries the banner for those who think they can hide under this banner of religiousness, i would ask that we work with those who are blocking us in the senate and blocking us many the house in a -- >> the gentlelady's time has >> we are leaving this hearing to go live to a press conference at the state capital in charleston, west virginia, where the governor is expected to tap former chief counsel goodwin to succeed the late u.s. senator, robert byrd. [applause]

you and the family members? if any of the family members want to sit down, if you like. can we get everybody situated here? we will get started. you all can sit down, please, if you have a seat. [laughter]

senator rockefeller? mr. president, first lady. the entire family. just a few moments ago i signed the appropriate paperwork to make this announcement official. robert byrd was a gigantic and never be replaced. we can never fill his shoes, we only hope that we can follow in his footsteps. i have waited to make this appointment because it is important to do it right. i would like to thank the white house. i would like to thank the majority leader.

i would especially like to thank senator rockefeller for making this procedure and this process work so flawlessly. for allowing west virginia to go through the process, they have been most gracious. the time has now come to appoint someone to the senate will look out for west virginia, work hard for west virginia, and is a crowd west virginian. i am extremely proud to appoint hard goodwin to the united states senate. [applause]

regardless of whoever occupies this seat now and in the future, it will always be known as west virginia's united states senate seat that was occupied for nearly 52 years by our beloved senator robert c. byrd. we will look out for west virginians. i know that he will make us all proud. i worked shoulder to shoulder with him for four years. i know the man. i know that west virginia is better off for passing this way. he has been a part of landmark legislation. the hard work, the dedicated commitment and devotion he has had for west virginia. i do not need to tell you all, if you do not know heart, he is fiercely independent.

we have gone toe to toe many times. he would not back down and i love that about him. i have no doubt that he will carry out the duties and the wishes of the people. as a result, he has not only gained my trust, but my respect. like me, he has always understood the importance of bringing all sides together. i think that so many people who had the true talent to sit down with it their disagreements and had different philosophical debates, but was able to appreciate and respect where everyone is coming from, that is what it is about. it is about respect. we do not even have to be going down the same highway, if you will.

you are a better person if you are able to sit down and listen. one thing that i knew about this man's character, the mine disaster is still etched in our mind. i will never forget that. i did not know. no one gave me a book and said if you have this horrible disaster, this is your procedure. i had lived before and knew what the families were going for. i tried to comfort them. we went through that and it was a horrible situation in which we lost 12 wonderful people. three weeks after that i get a call and they send me in for another exact same situation. two men were missing. no one knew what we were dealing with. we had 60 rescuers trying to find two men. friday night i called carter, i

said i do not know what the exact situation is and what the end will be. i do not think it will be good. but i can tell you that i want you to start tonight to get your team together to start writing legislation. i called him on friday night. rocky will attest. he left and she did not see him again until monday night. all they saturn -- saturday, saturday night, then sunday night. they brought the legislators back in monday morning. legislation was prepared that was unprecedented. we changed the safety of mining across the country because of the hard work and commitment to dedication that he had and i appreciate that so much. the good win family has a long and proud tradition in service to west virginia and i do not need to tell you that. i have said this many times. some people look at different

families and think that this is a tremendous honor, which it truly is. they look at the glamour of it, if you will. often what you do not see are the sacrifices that the wives, husbands, children, the holidays that they give up for the sacrifice to devotion. the hobby as they might not have ever been able to take up because of this commitment. there is so much that goes into public service and i cannot be more proud than the peak -- of the people that i have known who are my dear friends that continue to serve at the highest level. i respect each and every one of you for what you have done and what you give back to our country. as i introduce carter, i would like to note that he will join the united states senate as the youngest senator serving. it is only fitting that he is replacing the most beloved, most historic figure the senate has ever known, who happen to be the

oldest when the good work took him. what a tremendous signal, what a tremendous opportunity that we have to pass this torch to another generation. i am continuously encouraging and pushing young people to get involved in public service. that we are able to pass this to a generation that has the opportunity to lead west virginia in the future, i would like to thank each and every one of you for being here today. i want to thank all of them and all of you who have helped in this process. i want to thank every west virginian who has been so patient. we do this for one purpose, one reason only, one man only, robert c. byrd. i think we have honored him as we should. i know that washington and senator rockefeller, honoring

him by coming during his memorial, i know that today we honor him. choosing a worthy replacement, going through this process in the legislature, we will go through the process. the house will finish their business. i thank them. we will have a proper election. the people will make this election. this is the people's seat. that is exactly what robert c. byrd would want and we are doing it that way. that is the way it should be done. without further ado, let me introduce to you officially the newest member of the united states senate. carter good whewin. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you, thank you very much. needless to say, it is an immense honor to be standing here today to accept the appointment to the united states senate. i would like to thank my friend, the governor, for entrusting with this enormous responsibility. in turn my responsibility becomes working hard every day to maintain the trust of the people of west virginia. i have a deep and abiding passion for this state and her people. in the days, week, and months ahead, my sole object -- my sole job will be working for west

virginia, with no agenda other than working and fighting hard every day for west virginia. as the governor alluded to, senator robert c. byrd, perhaps the greatest senator our state and country will ever know. no one can even begin to replace him. nor can anyone help to fill his shoes. what i can do and what i will do is try my best to emulate his work ethic and commitment to the law, the constitution, and this great state. [applause] in doing so, i will rely heavily on the guidance and mentor ship of our senior senator, jay rockefeller. [applause] and of course draw on my experience serving with the

governor. having spent four years working so closely with the governor, i am fortunate to have seen firsthand the level of commitment, cashin, and dedication it takes to be a public servant. that level of dedication and passion is taking me to washington. it will not be easy. there will be many challenges ahead. i will have a lot to learn in a short period of time, but i am confident that i am up to the challenge because i can count on the support of my family. my father will be looking down. senator rockefeller and the entire delegation, my friend, the governor, who most important piece of the prayers and support of the people of west virginia. i am excited about the challenge. [applause]

>> i am not sure if you noticed, but the pin that i have gone and the pin that carter has, as the constitution. i do not need to tell you why we have them. the last thing that senator byrd did, one of the last things, he wrote in his book to me that i am passing, this book to the united states senator that will be seated in his honor. [applause] i cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to have our senior senator here with us today.

for the last four years i have worked extremely close with this man. a tremendous partner. in life we have partners and you are so fortunate to have a good one. and i have been blessed because i know every day when he gets up he is thinking about west virginia. every time that i call he tells me how we can help west virginia, giving me an idea of how to make a better. he has never let us down. so pleased to have him with us on this historical, momentous occasion. the likes of which we will likely not see again. with that, let me introduce to you the senior senator from the great state of west virginia, jay rockefeller. [applause]

>> first of all, i would like to thank the governor, saying that he has shown extraordinary courage, all for less, and wisdom in the way that he has carried out the making of this appointment. it had to be done right. it had to be done in a way where he was truly representing the rights of the people to make decisions. he did that. and if it took one week, it did not make any difference. because he did it right. so, governor, i think that there are lots of test of leadership. this one was not a grand one in the annals of rescuing someone or some company or whatever, but it was extraordinarily important. i think you showed your qualities of leadership in the

way that you handled the making of this appointment. i would also like to thank earl thompson and rick thompson, and the entire state legislature for their part in making this come about. obviously, we honor senator byrd. but one thing that he would say strongly, there is no such thing as an interim senator. it may be that the months that you are appointed to work have a limitation, but there is no such thing. let me tell you, for example, what will happen. on tuesday, at 2:00, the democrats will have or conclude our caucus, which we have every tuesday to discuss policy. extremely important, giving everyone a chance to speak.

at 2:15, the new senator from west virginia, in whom i have the best respect, will be sworn in in front of the united states senate and in front of the world. right after that, because he will make the 60th vote in a necessary piece of legislation, we will take up and pass unemployment compensation. [applause] and i think it is a remarkable symbol of who he is, how important the senate is, how

unimportant the word interim is. he it does not exist. he is a united states senator. there have not been more than 1800 in the history of this country. cart is our most recent one. he will have all the powers of any other senator. he probably will not have the biggest home base at the beginning. he might have to walk up one floor to get to the first floor. [laughter] but none of that makes any difference. that is why the word senior or junior never meant anything in the senate. it is all about what you know, can you express yourself, are you genuine, are you taught in

the rules of engagement, can you reach across the aisle, can you bring others with you, and most importantly what i started off with, how much do you know? that is how senators are judged. the rest is a seniority system, a system i have grown to like much more. [laughter] but it is superficial, really. senator goodwin, when he officially is sworn in to that name, he will have all the powers of dan or any of the senior members of the senate. it is very important that you understand that. you never think of him as being interim, he is a united states senator. robert byrd would want that to be well known. i tell you, a moment on mr.

goodman. i am thrilled that he is appointed. i will start out by saying that i am so happy that he is a good man. my life has been blessed in so many ways by the work and the presence and a friendship and co. and advice of the various members of a good win family. i respect their work ethic. i respect their automatic cents of public responsibility. they seek out what needs to be done and go about doing it. they do it in various fields. but they always do it in the interests of west virginia. cart as a lot of experience. the governor has covered some of that. what i like about him the most

is that i have an inside source in the family and it is his absolute commitment and dedication to the people of west virginia. you could have all the qualities that i mentioned before, but if you do not have that sense of when you get up in the morning of what it is today that i can do, whose vote why have to get, what compromise do i have to make or refuse to make that affects the people of west virginia in the best possible way. washington is not a beautiful place right now. ask any of your neighbors. but it is doing the work that will make this country recover and be strong. criticism is easy. the work of doing the right job for america and for west virginia is very important. it is interesting, they call us

united states senators from west virginia. that would appear to set up a conflict. there are times when that conflict has to be more particularly when you are discussing matters of war, peace, intelligence, foreign assistance, that they will shift more towards the united states. but i find that what motivates me and what gives me my pleasure, going back to the time when i was a volunteer in the southern counties, it is west virginia and the people that get me out of bed every day. who are so good and sometimes underestimated by the rest of the world. the rest of the world is sometimes very callous. but those that no laws, treasure us. we treasure ourselves and have enormous pride in who we are.

cart has the highest level of professional standards. something that is very important, immediately recognized by other senators. again, senators are fairly quick to make up their mind. they listen to you, they look at you, they look at you as you look straight in their eyes and are fairly quick to make up their minds. cart will pass those tests easily. he is a consummate professional and a disciplined human being. he can work and will work to whenever lank is required to accomplish something for the people that he and i represent. i cannot tell you how proud i am personally and professionally to know that in three or four days we will be colleagues.

no senior, and a gene -- jr., colleagues working together for west virginia. i think that he is absolutely first class as a person and as a professional. and i think that the people of west virginia, under the wise selection of a governor, are very lucky. i know that the senate is and i know that i am. so, your start in this job with the support of really everybody , i just look forward to what we can do together, to what we can do with our colleagues to keep pushing forward for west virginia. for the coal miners, for the workers. for the middle-income earned income tax credits, child tax credits, all of those things that help the working families, the small businesses that make up west virginia.

we are at work right now on a very thorough piece of mine safety legislation. coming out of the ubb experience, we have learned a lot since then. we will turn out further legislation. everything that we do their, whether it is credited as such or not, is important. it is important. because it affects somebody somewhere. when it affects people in west virginia, we will be standing side by side fighting for west virginia. governor, i am grateful to you. cart, i look forward to you and your start on the right side of history. thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> thank you so much, senator. i would like to thank my dear friend, nick casey, for being here. he was the last appointment that our beloved senator, robert c. byrd, made to the district court. you will make a great judge and we are so proud of you for that. we are hoping that maybe that will speed things up by a little bit. could not hurt. doing a great job, thank you for being here. look around a war room and every walk of life here in west virginia -- look around the room and every walk of life here in virginia. thank you all for being here. from our business people to the largest and smallest business people in the chamber, and to

our most wise of the people in west virginia, aarp'ers, thank you, and for those of you that represent the children and those that have no voice, thank you. to the legislature and all of you, thank you so much and i hope you are proud of the process we have gone through in the way that we have honored our late, great senator. with that we will move forward for all of west virginia. we will open a to questions from the media, if they would. we will do one-on-one afterwards. we are starting right down the line. >> [inaudible] >> welcome to the senate. [laughter] let me answer by saying this,

there are a host of substantive issues facing our country right now and scores of intricate legislation pending. although i follow public affairs as much as everyone, i am anxious to roll up my sleeves and really delve into it. as a result i am reluctant to get into an extensive policy discussion on any particular piece of legislation. that being said, from what i have seen it will pass the house of representatives. simply not right for west virginia. [applause] i would submit that the legislation being championed by senator rockefeller right now, that would focus investment in clean coal technology, recognizes the practical step of coal in our economy and energy portfolio.

probably better to answer your question this way, i will not support any piece of legislation that threatens any piece of -- and the west virginia job -- any west virginia job or legislation or family. [applause] >> i will go right down the side. anybody? >> [inaudible] >> much easier than the first question. no. >> i knew that you wanted to say something. >> [inaudible] >> as the governor alluded to, i do try to maintain a sense of independence. what is important to me are the issues that make up my own decision.

i will only prepared -- i will only be there for a brief period of time and i will make the most of it. >> [inaudible] >> who said that? [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> i would submit that there is no such thing as nan elite from [unintelligible] [applause] second, i have a big family in a relatively small state.

several members of that family have been active in public service for decades. i am very proud of all of them and i love them all. [applause] >> [inaudible] >> kenai speak first and have cart -- can i speak first and have cart follow up? there is no litmus test. we can shake your hand and look in your eye, see your soul in west virginia. when you work with someone 24

hours per day, you really get to know them. that is where i started making my decision, based on a person that i knew would be impeccable as far as in the decisionmaking process, uncovering any stone, doing all of the research it would take, bringing me the pros and cons. i knew that he would do it even more so for himself. and i know that he is fiercely independent. it was not like a litmus test had to be given to see if he fits here or there. no, i know. we said that the senator is fighting the great fight that he is fighting for our people and we are fighting the good fight here, we do it every day. this gentleman voted for legislation, researching the things and bringing it. cap and trade, anything that he might want to talk about, this person has been in on the front line, giving four years of his

life to public service. he has been taken away from his family for many days and nights giving to that. rocky will tell you. >> the only thing that i would add to that is that our first call on the discussion of cap and trade, it happened mostly just in response to the previous question. you do not have to live too far from the earshot of any radio or newspaper to know how strongly west virginians feel about that issue and how important it is that we protect our economy and our jobs, making sure that those voices are heard in washington. >> as we go around the room, we appreciate it. thank you. [applause]

>> that is the end of west virginia governor announcement that he has tapped council goodwin to succeed the late u.s. senator, robert byrd. 36 years old, a charleston lawyer, he will hold the seat until november, which is when the governor wants voters to decide who will serve the final two years. adding another democrat to vote on unemployment legislation and additional war spending for fiscal year 2010. ahead we go live to coverage of the eagle forum on conservative political activism in college, speakers including conservative

commentators. live at 3:00 p.m. eastern time, here on c-span. now a conversation on white house strategy on national hiv aids policy. koh is on your screen, he is the assistant secretary of health and human services and he's here to talk about the national hiv/aids strategy announced by the president and the white house. dr. koh, how many people in america have aids? >> we have over one million people in this country infected and some 56,000 people infected every year. that's one person infected every 923456 had 23456 1/2 minutes. that's too much. host: about 1.1 million people have aids. >> h.i.v. guest: h.i.v. host: in the states. guest: right. host: how do you define h.i.v. and aids? guest: h.i.v. means you're infected and you have the virus. aids means you have various

accompanying illnesses or aids-defining illness of the 1.1 million h.i.v. up effected people about 400,000 have aids. host: how -- is h.i.v. a death sentence still? guest: absolutely not. the good news, peter, is we've made so much progress recipe treatment and so many people are living healthy, productive lives who are h.i.v. above or who have aids. that's the good news. the challenge is we've lost the sense of urgensy about h.i.v. and aids and that's why the president unveiled the strategy after consulting with people in the community and experts across the country about the current status of the epidemic. host: so have we lost the urgency? why? guest: we can think about many possible reasons. we've made a lot of progress in treatment, that's good news. we have many other health threats on the horizon, that's always a challenge. we have the next generation coming up who didn't feel that

sense of urgency when the virus was first described some 30 years ago. so this strategy revitalizes national commitment to combating h.i.v. and aids, we want a national vision where h.i.v. is rare and everybody is getting care. host: when it comes to getting h.i.v., is it on the rise? guest: the number of people being infected every year is staying about the same. host: about 56,000. guest: that's right, about for the last decade or so. that means prevention works and in fact there are estimates some 350,000 case investigate been prevented because of the prevention education efforts so far. but we need to do much more, peter. that's why this strategy was unveiled. host: we'll get to the strategy in just a minute. i want to get through the facts here. we're going to put the numbers on the screen. we only have a short time with dr. howard koh. we'll go ahead and put the numbers up if you want to dial in we're talking about the national hiv/aids strategy.

what about the drugs to combat aids and h.i.v.? have they been developed to a point where people think well, if i get it, then i'll just take a pill? guest: the gooze good news again is over the last years some 20 new drugs have been discovered and implemented and used by people for caring for this disease and treating this disease. that's the good news. it's still a devastating condition for many people, and there are many, many dimensions to this illness beyond the disease itself. so we've made a lot of progress but we have to do much more. host: how much is the federal government currently spending on h.i.v. prevention and medication, etc.? guest: well, we for this report put an assessment on all the resources that have been applied to this epidemic and some $19 billion have been put

forward every year across the country for prevention, for education, for research, for treatments. that's not enough, but it's still a considerable commitment to date. and part of the strategy is to make sure that we're aligning those resources the best we possibly can so key can reduce suffering for the future. host: when it comes to the federal strategy how are those resources being aligned? guest: we have parts of it dedicated to research, parts dedicated to appropriation, there are geographic distribution formulas for the country, and so what the strategy does is gives us an opportunity to assess where we are, see if we can do this better, dedicate the resources to where people are really in need and make sure that we can make a very strong impact for the future. host: and you talked about geographic distribution of funds and resources. where? guest: well, the -- host: the epidemic areas. guest: the epidemic is hitting us in the northeast, in the south, in the virgin islands,

and there are many resources that are going to those areas, but there's an opportunity to assess if we are doing it in the best possible way. host: what else is in the national aids strategy? guest: well, there are several goals. one is to decrease new infections by 5% over the next five years. host: by what means? guest: through more emphasis on awareness like this program, on testing, unfortunately some 20% of people who are infected don't know their h.i.v. status. host: is that 20% of the 56,000 who get infected every year? guest: that's right. we need to have a situation where everybody knows what their h.i.v. status is. that's message number one. everyone should know their status. and secondly we need to make sure that people are getting appropriate care and get into care quickly and efficiently and effectively. so this is where the health reform affordable care act actually has a big impact because the new pre-existing

condition insurance plan will help people with aids. host: has that taken effect yet or is it off in the future? guest: starting right now i had risk pools and expansion will happen in 2014. we have new programs starting now and this is a bridge to 20 14. host: if somebody is infected today, can't afford drug therapy or can't afford hospitalization or a doctor, and gets infected with h.i.v., what happens? what is the federal government saying -- offering to that person? guest: we have resources in all parts of the country so that's the good news and we have tremendously dedicated officials and community leaders who help people who are newly infected get into care. and we also have a very vibrant ryan white care act that really helps people who are uninsured and underinsured and are of low income. the question now is can we do

this even better, align those resources even better in the future. that's part of the strategy. host: dr. koh, what else do you want to tell us about the strategy you think we should know? guest: this is a challenge not for people who are infected but indeed for the whole country. i like to say you don't have to be infected to be affected by this epidemic. we lost too many people to this virus, and this is not opportunity now to rally the country and realign our resources and reaffirm our commitment to confronting this challenge head on. host: dr. howard koh is the assistant secretary of health of human services. what is your area of responsibility as assistant secretary? guest: i have a broad array of responsibilities, advising the secretary, overseeing a dozen offices that have to do with disease prevention and health promotion and in general helping mobilize and intergreat many of the efforts across the country to make the country healthier. host: he is a graduate of yale,

the yale university school of medicine and trained at the boston city hospital and at mass gen. his brother just -- his brother is harold koh, the dean of the yale law school. just a little bit of information. let's take some calls. we're talking about the national hiv/aids strategy. our first call comes from nicklaus in milwaukee. go ahead, nicklaus. caller: thank you and thank you for c-span and the informative guest. i was taught by the pope and the good nuns and priests that chastity can prevent the various diseases. this seems to be a lack in the obama administration of stressing chastity and abstinence and they talk about safe sex. in other words, they want to give condoms, birth control pills and so on which i think is a very, very evil, and i

hope they change on this. also, the media we have so much sex-oriented programs and we're telling these young people to have sex and we should stop that. host: condoms, abstention. are those parts of your strategy? guest: absolutely. in general, people need education so they can make informed choices to help themselves and protect themselves and stay as healthy as possible. and those are choices people have to make for themselves. so whether it's abstinence and chastity or condoms or other protective services, these are choices people need to make for themselves after they hear about the threat that this epidemic still is in this country. host: so abstinence is not part of the obama administration's strategy. is that correct? guest: abstinence is a

foundation obviously especially for young kids. host: less 23iss than the bush administration put on it? guest: in the current situation we have an array of approaches for kids whether it's abstinence or education or protection as people get more sexually active. there's an array of options and people have to choose those options based on their own values. host: next call for dr. koh comes from orlando. norm, you're on the air. please go ahead, democrats line. caller: hello. host: norm, go ahead. caller: yes. the question i have for dr. koh is how can you talk about the -- controlling the spread of hiv/aids when many of the local municipalities, state governments are cutting the -- cutting health programs at the local health departments area.

and also, has there been -- why has there not been -- this -- a public health mobilization over the past 10 years or 15 or 20 years in this particular disease? can you show any area where there has been a reduction of the spread of this disease based on the policies they have in place today? host: thank you. dr. koh? guest: thank you for your commitment to local public health. public health is local and we need everybody in not every community to be involved in public health whether it's h.i.v. or any other threat. if you want to stress the positive, we have fewer aids deaths now than 15 years ago, mostly because of these great successes in terms of new medications. the numbers of deaths now have

dropped to about 15,000 a year and as we already talked about, peter, we have about 56,000 new infections a year, that number has stayed stable over the last decade or so. but no one is satisfied with that. we want to get those numbers down so that h.i.v. is rare. that's what our goal is. host: there has been talk about a vaccine for aids or for h.i.v. is that promising or is this way off in the future? guest: there was a trial that was based in thailand announced relatively recently that represents an advance but it's still not for public use yet. so we have outstanding researchers at n.i.h. who continue to work on this very important topic and we look forward to more promising news in the future. host: are the infection rates in the u.s. less than other areas of the world? guest: it's interesting, this weekend starts the international aids meeting in vienna. we're going to be meeting colleagues from around the world. this is a global pandemic.

there are places around the world that are very severely hit. so we join many colleagues around the world who are facing this as one global planet. host: dr. koh, when you say the $19 billion a year is spent on h.i.v. prevention and treatment, etc., is that just in the states or worldwide? guest: that's in the state states host: next call, robbie, republican, you're on did with dr. howard koh. i'm sorry. where the heck am i? there i am. robbie, please go ahead. los angeles. caller: dr. koh, thank you for being on c-span. i'm a general manager at a manufacturing plant. what may we do as employers to educate our employees about h.i.v. and aids? guest: thank you so much for asking that question. i think the more employers talk about wellness and prevention and health for their employees, the better off we're going to

be as a country. there are many aspects of that in the health reform law in fact. so for this particular area, if we talk about testing and knowing your h.i.v. status and the importance of prevention and importance of wellness for the workplace, those are really very, very important themes. host: johnston city, illinois. ashley. good morning to you. caller: good morning. good morning. i feel like i'm the only 21-year-old calling your panel today, but my point is i -- my first point is, i think we need to give america the care. they need to understand the fact that h.i.v. and aids is a viral infection, it is permanent. they need to see that. abstinence is forming your parents more of what they're contracting as this disease progresses. they need to be informed of it i think. i don't think a vaccine -- i think a vaccine would be a wonderful help but it's like an

easy button for americans to push and the easiest way is just to know, to be knowledgeable of what this is. guest: i can sense the urgency in your voice and i thank you for your passion. we need to list the -- lift the stigma ma around this area. we're in a time people don't often mention h.i.v. or aids, we don't talk about protection or education and for us to really make an impact you have to have the passion you displayed in your question and talk about education and lift the stigma so people infected can get treatment as early as possible. those are all very, very important themes and all part of the strategy. host: next call is cedar falls, iowa. joan, a democrat. caller: i've been trying for months to get on. this is a topic that really i have to understand is very, very -- it's hurting young

people and older people and for the next generation to think that we have a vaccine, sure we might have a vaccine that will cure somebody or help somebody, but the thing that is people rely on that, oh, well we've always got that vaccine. just like the same thing of tobacco. have we always got the thing to cure people from tobacco? no. people have to decide that they desire not to do this. host: joan, do you ever -- is there h.i.v. and aids talked about in cedar falls, iowa? caller: there is. there is somewhat. but of course we can't control it because i don't think that anyone -- any group of people decided that they was going to take it. it's a parental thing. it's a thing that children have

to be taught from their parents . host: thanks, joan. guest: again i really appreciate joan's passion and dedication. she's is absolutely right. we can't wait for the vaccine here. we know what to do with respect to prevention right now, and the real message from joan's question is that our good health is a gift, it's something that's very, very precious so we need to protect it every day. and with respect to h.i.v. that protection means education and lifting the stigma and talking about these issues with your neighbors and with your community and really joining in this national strategy that was unveiled by the president several days ago. host: i want to go back to the complacency issue. a couple callers have hypotheticaled around that, okay, well, so what, i'll take a pill. all right. are there studies about the long-term effects of h.i.v. medication? has it been around enough so we

can study the long-term effects? guest: we know more about the long-term effects than ever before. people are growing older with h.i.v. that's the good news but they're getting now other health problems as we all do as we get older. host: that are related to the h.i.v. or not? guest: sometimes related to the h.i.v., sometimes related to the medications for the h.i.v. so this is adding to the complexity of aids care in this country. and this is why we really need the broadest approach for aids moving forward. it involves housing and education and good insurance coverage as well as medications especially attention to prevention. host: we got this tweet from parasite simm. dr. koh, annual drug cost to u.s. patients of h.i.v. cocktails are greater than $15,000. gates foundation subsidies are around the world. why not here? guest: we would love to partner with foundations and nonprofit organizations and businesses

and in fact when the announcement was made on tuesday, there were a number of business leaders who stood up and said we want to help contribute to this issue and we want to make a difference. that was fantastic. we want public-private partnerships and everybody getting involved. we'd love to explore that. host: wynell in harlem. how are you? caller: good morning. how are you? dr. koh, how are you? i served on the acp up here in harlem -- host: you serve on the what? caller: the acpg, aids chronicle trial group. host: okay. caller: i'm concerned about -- you're not really talking about the policy, what you call, prevents what i'm actually waiting to hear about, but i'm concerned about something that may be coming out which is use ing cervada before you have sex.

now, do you have any insight on that? i heard that might be coming out by the end of the year. host: just is send. use what one more time? caller: it's an h.i.v. medication. host: what's it called host: caller: travada. host: are you infected with hiv/aids right now? caller: yes. host: how long have you had it? caller: since 1993. host: how is your health? caller: great. unfortunately my friends up here are not. host: but your health is great. you're part of a clinical trial, a federally sponsored clinical treatment trial? caller: right. what we do is review every medication before it comes out. and also we also review medications for our clinical trial. host: and are you currently taking meld education? caller: yeah, of course. host: do you switch medications

as you review them? caller: sometimes if i like the idea, the concept. when i review it, i look at like side effects, i look at you know, how fast does it drop the viral load, i look at all these issues with the medication and if i see something that i like, if i see something like -- we just got a drug approved which is one of the -- it's an inhibitor, an enzyme outside the nucleus -- host: we're going to run out of time. if you would address his specific terms but also for viewers just tuning in review the president's new national hiv/aids strategy for hem. guest: first i want to thank wynell. we are so appreciative when people who are infected get involved in research and become community leaders on this issue. we want to thank him.

the specific question he was asking about is what is called preexposure prophylaxis, it's an area of intense research. to wrap up, we're excited about the relationship that the president has shown after consulting with the community because we have a chance now to really make a difference in this epidemic that's been in this country for too long. we've lost too many people and have some major initiatives we can achieve by working together. host: are you familiar with the project that he was talking about up in harlem, this particular trial? guest: there are many trials on this topic of so called pre-exposure prophylaxis. that's an area of interest, >> we are leaving the last few minutes of this recorded program with a reminder that you can watch it on line at c-span.org. now to an event on college students and political activism. we will hear from anti-abortion

activist kristan hawkins. >> -- to expand intellectual diversity on university campuses. and now she is part of -- >> we are very excited about this because it brings some 25,000 people together who are scientists and advocates and patients. >> we will leave the last few minutes of this recorded program now with the reminder that you can watch it on line at c- span.org. and we take a lead to an event hosted by the eagle forum on college students and conservatives political activism. it is just beginning. you're watching live coverage on c-span. >> it is great to be up here because five years ago i was in the same position as all of you. i had just come to washington, d.c., to intern for the first

time for senator lugar from the state of indiana were i am from. i spent a lot of time involved in politics and run political people and talking about issues and legislation but i really enjoyed it. i found a lot of conservative women in the sea and loved hanging out with them and talking about issues together. so when i went back to the owners did that -- university of virginia for the third year of college, i saw out a similar environment to what i found in the washington, d.c. smart, ambitious woman, who were also conservatives and wanted to talk about issues from a conservative prospective bid up mature schools are like my university, there probably hundreds of clubs. archery clubs, belly dancing clubs, rugby clubs get your name and activity, and there is a club for it. i figured there were be something like what i was looking for on my campus. but there was not at the university of virginia. i looked at campuses around the country, and again there was nothing. so one day on my walk home from

class, i walk by building that was called the women's center. now the women's center -- you would think it would be open to all women, right? so i scheduled a tour with one of their directors, and she showed me around and really tried to recruit me to join their feminist magazine and their feminist reading groups and their feminist this and that. by the end of the tour, of getting the impression that there were more just there for more liberal women. but i decided i might as well ask the question. so i asked -- would you be interested in cosponsoring a group for conservative young women? she just looked at me like i was crazy, chuckled, and said "not here. that is when i decided to do something about it. so i started the network of enlightened women or new, as opposed to now. i started new as a book club for

conservative college women. if your campuses like mine, there are some and you divert clubs to get involved in enjoying. sometimes a good to these organizations. you eat some pizza, and you leave. you wonder what you just got out of it. i did not want it to be like that. i wanted everybody to come to it and leave knowing they learn something concrete and really got something out of the hour that they were there. so we started the book club. so the first track is a book club. this gives us structure every week or every two weeks when our chapters me. we know they culberson something. the books provide a great springboard for discussion. some of the recent books we have read are, what our mothers should have -- should have told us," the politically incorrect guide to women, sex, and then as in," and the war against both ways" is. a lot of great books. but as you probably found out,

when you get a group of women together, they want to do a little bit more than just read and discussed books. so then we decided to expand beyond just educating ourselves and our book club to try to educate our larger campus community. so whether that is hosting a panel on how to balance work and family, getting involved in the philanthropy of events, hosting debates -- we actually posted a debate. how many of you guys have women's studies department at your universities? a lot. well, we actually co-sponsored a debate with the feminist groups on campus called "are women's studies departments necessary anymore?" and had quite a debate on it. we brought in speakers and got some discussions going. one of our chapters actually out in arizona state university, two years ago, did this event that they called a gentlemen's

showcase, where they honored at the top gentlemen on their campus because they thought the gentleman were not treated well and that behavior was not encouraged. canal they continue to host these gentlemen showcases to honor a mutual respect between the sexes. so a lot of great events. the mission statement of new is to cultivate a community as conservative young women and to expand intellectual diversity on college campuses. this group really started as a group of friends, but the idea took off. others heard about new and wanted to start a chapter, so i went to williamsburg to go to their first meeting. within six months, more chapters were popping up. "time" magazine ran a story on us, and that led to a lot more interesting people wanting to start chapters. that is really how this grassroots organization began and how it has grown. now we are on over 20 college

campuses and really spreading all over the country. we have especially strong chapters in virginia where it was founded but all the way to arizona. so we continue to spread all over. now because many women have appreciative the message of new, and we are culturally conservative women, unlike our feminist counterparts. we reject the victim mentality that is in dominic feminism. we recognize that their natural differences between the sexes, and we embrace our femininity and recognize there is a role for women and men in society. because this messages resonated with so many women, new has been successful and growing. we encourage you to go to our website. is www.enlightenedwomen.org. or you can visit our blog, which is a link to there, too, were we have our young leaders from around the country commenting on issues about pop culture and political issues as culture

recovered -- culturally conservative young women. i encourage you to reach out and get involved in some way. i hope if your school has a chapter of new, that you'll become involved. if your school does not have a chapter of new, i hope you'll start a chapter. all you really need to get this started as women and books. it is a simple project that translates very easily. so after the speeches today, if you're interested, feel free to come up and introduce yourself. i would love to say hello and give you my business card and give you more information that you're interested. i am in washington, d.c., now working as an attorney, so if any of you would like to get together to talk about it, i would be happy to do that. i hope you get involved on your campus in new or some other way because you have to stand up and make a difference. it is the most important thing you can do is a young college student interested in making a difference, to get society interested in the issues and to stand up and speak out. five years ago, was sitting in

the crowd, going to a lot of debris conferences, and i found a way to stand up and make a difference on my campus. and i encourage you all to do so was well. [applause] >> we will take two questions. anybody? >> thank you. what was the main thing that just started the organization? what was the catalyst, i guess i would say? >> it was finding a group when i was in the washington, d.c., of ambitious men and -- women who were like-minded and the talk about issues together, and then going back to campus and realizing that contrast where all the women's groups are catered to more liberal women. and i realized that there was a niche that was not being filled, and i really wanted something like that.

i really wanted this environment, and i decided to create it. >> when you started the conservative group, did you have a lot of criticism from liberal groups? and just about having a debate with the feminist group. >> we did. i think phyllis can relate to this bill within two weeks of us starting new, the feminist magazine on campus put a picture on the cover of their magazine ad depicting what they thought new and conservative women stand for. it was a picture of a woman in a perfectly pleated dress with an apron on and holding a recipe in the one hand and the other hand, staring tricky badger. then she is connected to this machine that was popping out 12 babies. she was a baby-making machine. that is how they portrayed as a the beginning because they saw us as a threat and wanted to cut us off from the beginning but we really showed them.

we have grown. [applause] >> i hope that any of the young women here can go and do likewise or join up with new and start a chapter on your campus. our next speaker is kristan hawkins. and she has worked for pro-life most of her life. she started volunteering when she was in high school. she was president of west virginia teenagers for life. when she went to college in her native west virginia, she started a pro-life group on campus and graduated summa cum laude. now she's the executive director of students for life, a great organization, a great and growing organization. please welcome kristan hawkins. [applause] >> good afternoon.

thank you for being here. i know it is friday afternoon, and we are all looking forward to great weekend and private weather in the washington, d.c., hopefully. i want to start up with a quote. there may be times where powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. i love this quote. despite a holocaust survivor, and i think it kind of sums up a lot of how -- gino, a lot of what we do in this movement. i cannot go to supreme court today and demand that roe v wade be overturned, but that does not mean i cannot do anything. this resonates a lot with college students. there are things that we can do on our college campuses, and that is what students for life of america strives to do. abortion is the central issue in the conservative movement, and i know i will get questions about that statement.

it is so important. if you look at the queue for ahmadinejad -- pew forum to a dozen in the study on millennial. what is the issue we are winning with this generation? abortion. life. because we see life, abortion, fetal rights as human rights. because the unborn person is a human. as phyllis knows, working in the conservative movement, use are always the trouble spot when it comes to voting. we're always the liberal use of the votes in the democrats. but i am here say that times are changing on the college campuses, and barack obama is helping us a lot with that -- thank you, mr. president. but we're winning this issue of abortion. it is so vital we are out there on the college campuses. it is vital that you are out there, not being afraid to say that you are pro-life.

i hope that 99% of you in this room are pro-life and you understand the importance of the right to life and how it relates to all the conservative issues. that is how important it is. we need you to be on your college campuses speaking for life and defended the unborn. even if you are a man, you can save the unborn. you can help women. 52% of all abortions occur on high school and college age women, 52%. planned parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, a $1 billion industry and recipient of the many tax dollars, over 3 hitter million dollars this year, they target college campuses, both women and went -- and men, for other services. we have had abortion now for over 37 years in this country. over 50 million babies have died. what is interesting about us is

that we were actually born after roe v. wade. your mother could have terminated you for $300. you could have not existed. you could have not been here today. it is pretty scary stuff if you think about it. your mother could have aborted you. and many people now in the pro- life movement are recognizing this. and our students on the other college campuses -- was in louisiana this week. our students are making a difference. they are out there every day defending the rights of the unborn, and that is what we need you to do. students for life of america is a national nonprofit it organization. we're in arlington for the headquarters, but we are across the country would field seven volunteers. we believe the most important thing you can do in your college campuses to start a prolegs to the group. to have a voice for the unborn. it is apparent that it is a separate groups of you can bring in people of different faiths and religions. he would be surprised damage

converting those on one somebody enters the pro-life movement. start a pro-life group and provide that support for women on campus. -educate your peers and to tell your administration that you're not going to take the pro- abortion policies any more. there are many things you can do. you can shut down an abortion clinic. with all the people in this room, you can go to one abortion clinic. if we focused all our action to the washington, d.c., planned parenthood dentistry providing abortions, which could shut it down. abortion clinics operate on about 10% to 30% margins. all you have to do is hurt their business by 10%. and it is a business. that is important. if abortion is not possible, the one on be any abortion clinics in america you get an abortion clinics at your campus. you can sponsor school-led initiative is. have diaper decks and the

bathrooms. have you seen those before on campus? it is very important. if a girl is facing an unplanned pregnancy, she is panicking. she's thinking she cannot do it. she cannot go to school and be a mother the same time. there is no support. you need to have reminders on campus that yes, it is going to be difficult, and we're not saying this is an easy step, but you can be a mother and be in school. that is a very, very important. we need -- we need you to go to your starting government associations. it is important that pro-life people are in the sga. make sure the records are getting the funding they need and are not getting discriminated against. we need you to hold a debate for elections. this year, the former president of aclu will be debating one of the prayer pro-life ecologists. we are arranging a tour of six stories -- schools this year for them to go around in tore and debate.

these are high turnout event that your campus do not let anyone tell you that nobody ever shows up to the to the pro-life evens, they're boring. have a display. has anyone ever seen crosses our flags to represent the unborn? as a very powerful images to have on your campus. in need to have those images as a constant reminder. this is a visual society, and we need to be showing people exactly what abortion means. in addition, you can hold them best balls. has anybody seen the movie "juno"? it is very popular. it will be on usa network. conservatives are cool, too. it will be on usa, and you can take that movie enjoyed on your campus. you can probably get your campus to sponsor buying the rights for that. we had groups this year sponsored a brought it like it's hot roast at the screening. it was the biggest event they

did all year at tulane university. they were able to take a positive pro-life message that was so relevant in our society, and basically turn out their entire school for a drop it like it's hot smore roast and "juno" screening . there are lots of things to do. the possibilities are endless. have these groups on campus, and we can see how we can attack those groups and make sure it is known that they are not the only voice on campus. most importantly. we need you there on the college gibbs is to save the lives and help the mothers. if you are not there providing that support, the voice for the unborn and the women, no one is doing it. she just said, what is the women's center all about. they are about advancing the principles of feminism. they are about abortion. they're tied in with planned parenthood. we need you out there and you're groups supporting health centers and saying here is a center you

can go to that is free and confidential. and everyone there is going to support you and love you and give you the actual resources you need. i was in an abortion clinic last october. i was pregnant with my second son. any time as a pregnant, twice now, i make sure that i am going undercover. i was in under cover, just feeling it out. i went to a federally funded planned parenthood in new jersey, and i asked them, i said, you know, i am thinking about having an abortion. i do not know what to do. what resources can you provide? i am new to the area. i need a doctor. i am considering abortion, you know, what this is they look like. we do not have any of those resources, ma'am. >> does this baby feel pain? i tell them i was 22 weeks. >> we're not really sure the baby feels pain. >> you have resources for local ob/gyn in case they decide to keep the baby? no, ma'am, we do not do that.

>> do have resources for adoption? we do not do that either. and this organization is called planned parenthood. that is a little irony for you. they only do one thing there. contraception and abortion. stop pregnancy and then end the pregnancy. that is what they do. we need to expose this injustice. i want to remind you of that quote. their times more powerless to prevent and justice, but there are a lot of things you can do on your college campus. just because you're in college does not mean you cannot impact the future. you guys are here to capitol hill this year, which means a lot of you are already interested in the politics, and many are probably thinking you'll run for office one day. be thinking about that every step of your career. you can make a difference. when you finally get back here on your own terms as a congressman and senator, i will be knocking on your door to make sure you do things the right way.

>> thank you. we will take two questions. >> i have a comment. i looked up the word person in the dictionary, and it said a human being. i look up the words human being in the dictionary, and it said person. i think that is our greatest hope, the personhood amendment and stressing that the person, the baby, the human being, is that from the moment of conception. >> well, yes, certainly an unborn baby is a person. but now you have raced a political issue on that, and i think it is inadvisable to put those amendments on the ballot because no state in our system of government can overturn a supreme court decision. so be careful about that.

>> we just do not support the amendment. >> that is right. any other question? >> hello. thank you. i was talking to a friend, and apparently st. louis university raised something like $40,000 and made this whole new program on health and pregnant women. have you seen that? and that's been recreated? >> no, they were our group of the year last year. there were $61,000 prize. they created a scholarship fund, so the race $25,000 the first year. that is up to $40,000. it is for pregnant women on campus. we have gone request in our office for women who have seen the block, and they have been asking if we can get money for my school, too. hardis what we're working to get other schools to commit to. we're definitely going to get

there. i am challenging a lot of catholic judgment schools to be in the competition. if st. luke's can do it, why can you not do it? that is my goal right now. >> i also wanted to ask, what other programs at the scene that have been the most effective? that would be the easiest. >> there have been a couple pregnancy research forums on college campuses in the past few years retake the pro-abortion groups, the pro-life groups, the administration, and you put them together on the panel. you say we will not talk about abortion but talk about what we provide to women. it is really telling. the administration does not know what they offer, which is very scary. i said, those types of events are good today. it takes a lot of court for the pro-life group because you have to do the digging. you have to go to the dean of students and say, ok, the woman is pregnant. where can she live? can she take a semester off? you have to ask these questions

proactively and get the information out. we have one group in miami that made a website is for pregnant women on their campus. they gathered up all the resources that the campus provided, and actually provided a lot. except no one knew. they put it on the web site and in sidewalk chalk. it is letting women know there is help if you find yourself with an unplanned pregnancy. i can give you a list of all the questions to start asking and start digging up information. but the possibilities are endless on campus. once you start thinking about how to help women and help save babies, there are a ton of things you can do. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> all right, our next speaker is alyssa cordova. she attended george mason university where she had some fund projects that i want her to tell you about. she worked diligently to bring conservative speakers to campus

and to stir of conservative activism on that campus. she was at one point named one of the top conservative student activists in the country by young america's foundation. please welcome alyssa cordova. [applause] >> thank you so much, phyllis, for inviting me back here today. yes was so honored. and i worked for it and policy institute, unless your honor to present phyllis with our lifetime achievement award for all she is done for the conservative movement. so i would like to give her one round of applause for everything. [applause] like a six-08 the lecture director with the clare boothe luce policy institute. our mission is to prepare and promote conservative women leaders. i did that by working with college students, to help the most conservative speakers at the campus. yes was so grateful to have this job. my favorite part of college was my own conservative activism. i graduated from george mason

in 2000 -- in 2009. i have been an outspoken conservative for my entire life. even though i went to a conservative high-school in the one of the most conservative towns in the country, which oddly enough is in the california, i started a conservative group at my school anyway. i always loved talking about politics and getting involved and paying attention to current events, but it was always just a fun hobby, something i enjoy talking about. but it was not really anything more than that. it was just sort of my thing. but when i went to george mason university, my attitude did not change much at first. now if any of you know anything about george mason, you probably do not associated with one of the crazy liberal campuses like berkeley or the ivy league. in effect, you might even think of it as a conservative school. i know i did at one point. after all, it is the home of some of the greatest free-market thinkers like walter williams and brendan smyth. there is in even a free-market

think tank on campus. it was easy to me to be duped into the idea that my school was different, that was open-minded to conservative ideas. but of course, i was wrong. i found this out my second year and may send when i signed up for an art class, of all things. now the class was art as social action, which i knew was not going to be conservative necessarily, but when i found my first assignment was going to be to watch "and inconvenient truth," i knew it was going to be an interesting semester. so about halfway through the semester, the professor told us that as a class on halloween, we would be marching around campus dressed in costumes representing the earth, made only a recycled materials, and protesting global warming. i think actually laughed out loud in the middle of class because there was no way of is going to do that. i approached her after class and told her, you know, i think it is fine if that is what you guys

want to do, but i do not believe in this and did not feel comfortable margin for something i do not believe in. and the look on her face was priceless. i mean, she had no idea what to say. if you do not believe in the global warming? that is what she said to me. well, not really, i told her. i mean, i would be happy to write a paper explaining why. she said yes, yes, you better write a paper, any better his lot of scientific facts. so somehow, i was assigned a science paper in the maya art class, but i did it anyway. and i even found a statistician who had testified before congress against al gore and the intergovernmental panel on climate change and included all of his facts in my paper. i turned it in. i was so excited to just show her how wrong she was. and she turned it back and get back to me with a three-page typed response to my paper. and the crux of her response was that since the son of a scientist, i should probably

avoid using scientific facts, even though she specifically demanded that i include lots of scientific facts. but it did not upset me or bother me or offend me at all when i got this back from her. it actually really excited me. because with this one statement that i was not going to march in her parade, i had totally ruffled her father's. so much so that she called me into her office the next day because she told me she was fascinated with me because she had never met someone as conservative as i was. this was my first real experience as a conservative activist. it was no longer a hobby to me. i can understand that it was a necessity that i speak up for my views. this professor, who was probably in her mid-60s, had never in her life met someone as conservative as me. now i am extremely conservative, and even though janet napolitano might put me a lot -- might put me on the terrorist list as of the like that, i am sure i am

not any more conservative than all of you in this room. but as professor did not go through rural life with a meeting someone as conservative as me because they do not exist. she went through her whole life because people like her, professions and administrators, used their positions to intimidate conservative students and to keeping quiet and not speaking up for their beliefs. after that experience, i did everything i could to speak up for my views. i used my time in the classroom to speak up for free enterprise, a strong national defense, traditional values. and every time i did, at least one of my peers would come up to me after class and thank me and tell me how really they were that there were not the only person who felt that way. outside of the question, i helped organize several events as a vice chairman of the college republicans with the help of young america's foundation, another organization you should know about a week organize the 9/11 never forget project, freedom we, which

honors veterans day, and the anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. no more che day which exposes the evils of communism. and we held conservative speakers. however, my favorite activity of all my activism was two things all college students can appreciate. it was free, and was really easy. it did not take that much time. i created a fake petition asking the school's administration to authorize the redistribution of gray. averages. i went to all of my peers. i just went out on the quad and ask them and they would sign this petition. when i did, they looked at me like i was crazy. why should we take carter earned grades from people just because other people are lazy? so i sent them a lot of the same lines will hear from liberals when it comes to things like welfare and that sort of thing. well, some people do not have a lot of money, and have to work their way through college, and

they do not have time to study, or they are discriminated against in the classroom, and it is not their fault they have low grades. but none of this matter to the students. they thought it was the most ridiculous idea they had ever heard. obviously, i agree, but i was undercover, cannot say anything but when i turned the conversation to taxes, their attitudes completely changed. that is different. those rich people do not need that money. my friend and i recorded the whole thing, and you can find it on youtube. it was even discussed in a recent book called "obama is on the." you can check that out, too. by the time i graduated from mason, people knew me on campus as a conservative activist. i am not telling you all of this to highlight my own accomplishments. i am telling you because you need to know that your peers are not going to hear about conservative ideas and the things you heard about today from their professors or administrators. they are only going to hear them

from you. being an activist on your campus is a lot of fun, and it will give you some of the most memorable experiences of our college careers. but it is not just a hobby. we have a responsibility to share the truth, the truth that is being stifled within the halls of academia by those who control it. i have a bible verse that always encourages me, and i want to share it with you in hopes it will encourage you as well. it is from perverse timothy chapter 4, burst open and do not let anyone look down on you because you are young. but be an example to other believers in your speech, behavior, love, faithfulness, and purity. so i hope all of you will use your positions on campus to be an example to your peers and spread the truth of freedom. thank you. [applause] >> you even sound like campus activities are fun. we will take two questions.

>> yes, what was the worst, like, the worst opposition you ever got? like, what was the hardest that they never pushed against you for what you're doing? >> the worst i ever got, well, it was the funniest actually, so i will tell you about that. it was the women's studies and the lgbt, you know, the gay and lesbian group. they had a meeting to discuss what they should do about me. [laughter] because i was putting of flyers. we celebrated something and is said conservatives should come out of the closet. we did it during the gay groups out week. they did not like that. one guy posting stuff all over his facebook. he was the leader of the gay group. he was saying that we need to figure out what to do about these fires and about alyssa cordova, mr. is being mean.

that is their favorite argument, by the way. you are mean. that is pretty good. a means you are winning. >> i have a quick question but i also a kind of in the the same situation. it is more advice than a question. i go to a small catholic campus, and i wanted to start a republican group on campus, and will not allow me because this is too controversial. although we have a gay-straight alliance and had a gay senator speak in our champ bulls -- in our chapel on the altar. i kind of thing that is blasts of a mess. how would you face the kind of adversity to your administration -- a kind of thing that is blasphemous. how would you face the kind of adversity to your administration and by teachers as well? i just want to know if you have any sort of advice. >> well, if you're campus distant -- does not allow political groups, you could do a campus conservative group.

but a situation like that, you have to make as much noise as possible you write articles to your school newspaper, your local newspaper. call me. this is what we do. we help students get through their schools administration's and all of the roadblocks that they put out. we can help you, you know, get an op-ed submitted. sometimes we have town halls and events. we have a lot of students right for us. just contact me. i will be here. you can get my car. and it can sound scary, but that is the best way to fight back, just to speak up. because they did not want anyone to know that they are stifling your free speech. a lot of times the only thing you have to do is threaten to go to the media, and they will usually back down. but they just rely on you getting nervous because they use their position of authority to keep you down and to scare you. you cannot let them do that. >> all right, thank you. [applause]

>> the next portion of this session of our collegiate summit is to hear from a couple of young women who have been working for eagle forum, to tell you what it is like to have a job, a fun job, working on conservative activism in the washington, d.c. and i really took a plunge in a couple of years ago by hiring a young woman from wellesley college. i have to tell you, that is hillary clinton's college, and several years ago i was invited to give a speech there. one of our members had worked for four years to get them to be willing to invite me. and finally by her senior year, she did succeed. i went, and they picketed all afternoon before my speech. it was a very cold day, but they valiantly picketed outside the auditorium all afternoon. but the most interesting part

was a pre-scheduled counseling session for after my speech. [laughter] so they could recover from the trauma of my lecture. [laughter] nevertheless, despite knowing what wellesley college was all about, i took the plunge and invited colleen holmes to be our executive director. i took her away from the christo -- the christian legal society. she not only got her bachelor's degree at wellesley, but she got her law degree at regis university where she received the national association of women lawyers outstanding graduates award. so i assume that what ever bad stuff wellesley taught her was shaped up when she went to regent university for law school. i want to welcome our executive director of eagle forum on our capitol hill office, colleen holmes.

[applause] >> i hope you do not mind my dig at wellesley. >> no, thank you so much. actually, i really appreciate wellesley because that is where i learned about phyllis. i was told how awful it was that phyllis was defending women election wanted to stay home with their children, and i was hearing all kinds of terrible things i looked into phyllis and i thought, this woman is amazing. she is run for congress twice. she has written 20 books. she really started a national grassroots organization that proved to the grassroots can have success beyond anything that they never could have imagined or could be accomplished by something that a national party did. so it was wonderful. and they looked to her writings at wellesley to fight the feminist. so i do credit wellesley with my being here today, and i am so thankful for that. phyllis is absolutely right, and yes was so thankful because i think i have the most fun job in

the washington, d.c. i want to thank those that are still here. i notice friday afternoon, but i think you're hearing from some of the best speakers today. i appreciate that. i want to take a few minutes to tell people about how fun it is working in the washington, d.c., and sure is. but to summarize what we do, that is kind of difficult. but to put it bluntly, we want to bring more people here to washington, d.c., that you heard from yesterday and stop all the bad things that you heard about today. i hope that helps a bit of money to tell you more about eagle forum. i hope you will. we did not really have a chance to get it to out eagle forum got started at all that phyllis has contributed to this country. but i hope that you will look at our website at eagleforum.org. we also have a dvd called "is doing the impossible" the bus through the history of how bill was put together eagle forum in the wake of biting the equal

rights amendment. that was a grass-roots thing that really showed america and, even more important, should washington, d.c., what can really happen when americans unite and lead their members of congress and let their representatives know what they really believe and what they're going to demand. that is the message now that we're taking to the tea parties. i will tell you more about that. but please check out our website. i like to get a copy of the dvd to you. it is funded here in the list's own words how that meant. and in the wake of putting equal rights amendment, phyllis trained and brought together a group of really dynamic, mostly women, but grass roots -- grass- roots activist, mommsen grandmothers who were really concerned about the direction of our nation and concerned about their children's futures, mostly people of faith, and got involved politically, and it shook up the nation. phyllis taught those ladies, once the battle was over, to

keep fighting, to go back, stay active. and now we have state leaders. we have leaders in every state. very active chapters in almost every state. those leaders are involved at various levels, a lobbying their state houses. we have several republican committee when men and several people who are really involved, some in the tea party movement now. so it is very helpful to have the network of grassroots activists or plugged into what is going on in the states and who can let us know here in washington, d.c., what is going on. i will tell you what we do in our washington, d.c., office. we put out legislative alerts. you'll hear from our legislative director in a few minutes. we go to a lot of the meetings and i know what is happening. i know a lot of you are capitol hill interns. we find out what is happening in the washington, d.c., this week. i started in september 2007, so it was read before the shift

happened. since president obama was elected in since our new congress came in. unfortunately, the theme as then what do we need to stop this week? how terrible is it? what do we need to let people know about this legislation coming up, and what, if anything, we can to stop it? unfortunately, because of the numbers in the congress right now, there has not been a lot we been able to stop. but getting the grassroots activated and by letting them know what is in all these bills, that has forced the debate that is setting as have to be in good position to elect members of congress who will defend our freedoms and who will really stop the agenda that we are seeing being advocated right now. now because of the situation that we have public -- politically, where unfortunately, the liberals have the numbers to be able to force through a lot of freedom- killing, economy-killing, and i- family legislation. phyllis gave us our marching

orders last year that we absolutely, as john number one, need to elect a new congress. thankfully she had the foresight many years ago, before most -- i think it was one of the first conservative organizations. she started a political action committee that enabled us to raise money and mobilize support behind good conservative candidates who share our values but most of my dog has really been focused on interviewing candidates -- most of my job has been interviewing candidates. we have kind of a triple threat at eagle forum. we have grass-roots but we do lobbying. then we had our political action committee. so we can elect the right and it is, hold them accountable, and have their constituents hold accountable. we can go back to our state leaders and find out who the good people are in your area, who the true conservatives are. people come to washington, d.c., and might want money and support. but it is nice to have our state leaders out in the field who can let us know what their reputations are in the area and

who is really doing good work, who we can really count on to stand up for our values. another thing that we do, too, is we work with other organizations and other pro- family organizations. we're thrilled to do a lot of work with students for life to get the word out about pro-life legislation and to the good pro- life candidates are. right now, a gulf war, our motto is leading the pro-family movement since 1972. that traditionally has been defending life and marriage. but as we see now, the family is being attacked from some many different perspectives. really, this exorbitant taxation is such an attack on their families. the cap and trade and all the legislation you heard about earlier is really taking -- all of these policies take a tremendous toll on families. it will take a toll on our economy. so we're working together with

taxpayer protection groups, with groups groupscei where chris horner works. it is fun to have the opportunity to go to meetings and to dock with the dedrick organizations. it is just thrilling. nobody can do it all. but to hear from people fromchris horner and all this brilliant analysts and to be about to take what they're doing and get the word out from our grass-roots network and to share the information with groups like students for life, we're able to multiplied the impact that we have. that really is a joy to be able to attend meetings with like- minded organizations throughout the weeks. one of the biggest joys this year since the tea party movements have arisen is to be about to take the information and take what we're hearing in the washington, d.c., and go back to the grassroots and let them know that their voice is really are being heard. calldiscouraging when you

your senators or representatives and you do not get an answer. or you keep calling and keep calling and the said legislation keeps coming through. i just want to let all of you know, like we're trying to lead the two parties and activist groups know, that all of the activism that you all are taking part in has had such a tremendous impact, not only in the continuing the discussion. look at the health-care bill. that was supposed to have been a done deal last summer. because the with the grass roots get activated, because people attended at town hall meetings, because of the way you were able to put pressure on some of the democrats and some of the republicans as which then might have voted for it, we were able to carry out a bit long enough for the american people to realize what was in the bill. this might be the only time i agree with nancy pelosi, but i think she was absolutely right, they had to do the health care bill for us to know what was in

it. now they can start lying about it. now we see what is in it, and the american people do not like it. so the first order businesses that want to get this thing repeal. that is putting us in good position to elect members of congress who we know, and to the american people are questioning and saying will you, as your first order of business, repeal obamacare. this is very, very helpful. in drawing up the debate in getting out the information about what is really happening, even though we lost that battle of fighting the health-care bill, i think we're going to win the war in letting the american people see how absolutely crucial it is to take a stand and to be careful about who you are electing to congress, to get involved, to vote in the primaries, and to not take for granted -- to know that you really need to get involved and to stay engaged. the other great victory we have had their grassroots really coming alive and getting engaged is the quality of candidates

that we are seeing run for office. that has really been a great joy. i had the privilege of interviewing over one header fitted canada's. i cannot believe it. people are starting to come in and decided to run for congress soon after the new congress was sworn in. but i have to tell you, because of what all of your doing, getting engaged and staying focused, letting your representative of snow that you will get involved, that you'll votes, working on campaigns. because people have seen that the american people are rising and demanding better government, we're getting better candidates. one of the greatest things that i am saying is the people who were the good can it is, people involved in their communities and who really realize that what is really important is not washington, d.c. people are not coming to washington, d.c., because the one to fulfill some dream to get congressmen. they're not coming here on an ego trip.

people are saying they would rather stay home with their family and grandchildren and run their business, but i realize i have been involved in my community and might have something to contribute. they see it as a sacrificial service to step up and running for congress. that has been a tremendous victory that the grassroots has realized. i does want to thank phyllis for the opportunity she has given me to work with some of these candidates and to encourage you all that all of your participation, whether it is calling members of congress are getting involved in the campaigns, it is making a difference at every level. please help us continue, and please keep fighting. [applause] >> we will take two questions. but i just want to mention one thing. one of her jobs is to go to all these coalition meetings, because we do believe in cooperating with other conservative organizations. but wouldn't you say that eagle forum is interested in the

working in a greater variety of issues than practically any other conservative organization? >> absolutely, and i would encourage everyone to sign up for our e-mail alerts and to read phyllis' column. she just wrote an excellent column about the artificial divide between social and fiscal conservatives. that is one of the issues we have always had a holistic approach to conservatism. if you are a social conservative, you are a fiscal conservative. if you consider yourself a fiscal said herbert -- conservative, you should be a social conservative. so much of the spending we need to get this country back on an economically responsible path, all that money is spent on the social issues. so i encourage you to read her columns. >> part of your interview process for the candidates -- is that a part of the eagle forum questionnaire like where they

stand on the issue? >> we have a 75-question questionnaire. it is a virtual history of the eagle forum. it really goes through legislative battles that eagle forum has fought throughout the years. >> they are all current issues. >> that is right. and they are very informed issues. it is a great indicator of where the candidates are, but it is also a great teaching opportunity to let members know some of the questions that they will face and with the conservative positions are. but we also interviewed. we did not just in interviews here. we make sure we know what the situation is on the ground, but the reputation is, how they have been involved in their communities. because part of the problems we face as we do not want decisions about who is being elected out in america being made in washington, d.c. we want those to come from local organizations, so we make sure we bring them into the process.

>> is there another question? >> i was just wondering if you have any ideas -- and in my state, eagle forum is not well known. we do have a state leader. but ideas of how to get people to get involved with a goal forum. we have young republican groups, which are not necessarily all conservative, but they are republican. i was wondering if you had any ideas on how to get people involved in the gulf war. >> well, advise them to our annual conference coming up the second week in september in st. louis. they will meet all of our wonderful leaders and the excited about all the projects we're working on. so you will get notice on that, and i hope you'll invite them to come. all right, thank you. [applause] >> our next speaker is suzanne,

the legislative director of the eagle forum. she works on of alerting all the people in the grass roots about important bills that are coming up and what to do about it. she came to us very young, just shortly out of college. but she was part of the press than in george w. bush's motorcade while he campaigned for the pennsylvania senator. i thought that was kind of exciting. she oversees the public policy action on all the federal issues, and we want her to tell you about the very exciting expensive system that we have so you can know what is coming up in what you can do about it. please welcome suzanne. [applause] >> thank you, phyllis. i will try to be brief because i know we're getting close to 4:00. good afternoon. i currently serve as the legislative director in the the washington, d.c., office.

i am from just outside philadelphia. i graduated from boston university in 2005. after almost a year of searching for a job in the washington, d.c., in the 2006, i found one after applying for the legislative assistant position with eagle forum. believe it or not, i actually did not know what eagle forum was or had not after frantically it reading about all the columns that i could, i figured out that this could be a pretty good kick. i was right. colleen and i are the only two staffers in the eagle forum office in d.c. it is five blocks away from here, right behind the capitol building and the supreme court. we are in the middle of all the action. i want to discuss how fun it is to work in politics in washington d.c.

every person you meet will ask you, who do you work for? colleen and i always have a good answer for that question. everyone is excited for us in the conservative movement. if you work for conservative organizations, you've probably been pretty busy since january 20, 2009. every policy issue under the sun has come up in some form of legislation, but our goal has remained unchanged. our goal has to -- has been to oppose every single piece of legislation under the obama agenda. it is my job to monitor a legislation on issues that it go from cares about. stang updated and in the loop by

attending college in meetings -- staying updated. writing letters to elected officials, explaining our policy positions. visiting with congressional staffers, sending urgent action alerts, advocacy messages to our grassroots members in order to target congressional offices so that elected officials know that voters are paying attention. getting a goal for mississippi message into the media through press releases and radio interviews. to compile a scoreboard to assign each member of congress and annual vehicle for immigrating. i keep track of key votes on a wide range of issues, like pro- life, health care, cap-and- trade, immigration, you name it. the annual ratings are really important because they are a reflection of how conservatively

it or not so conservatively that member of congress has voted in a given year. for example, -- we have our own listing of votes that we used to decide someone score. when we announce that we are scoring a particular vote, members of congress pay attention. they want to have a good score with us. back in the fall of 2006, when i first arrived in d.c., i was only here for about one month before the gop lost in the 2006 election. their 12 year reign of the majority ended. for that one month, there were still in the majority. i hanoticed that most of the issues that came up between september and october, we have to actively lobby on the issues that we supported. we had to drive calls into offices.

it has been very partisan, but we really needed to push the republicans in order to vote the right way. that is one aspect that has changed in the past two years. these days, we tend to work within a broad coalition of groups who all come together to unify and oppose whatever issue it is. typically, it is a center-right coalition of groups that come together. but sometimes, would be disclosed act, a the liberals' response to the supreme court's citizens united ruling and they aim to silence political speeches -- that was one issues where conservative and liberal organizations opposed it.

unfortunately, it passed anyway. but is a rare occurrence for both sides to come together. there was really only one built that eagle forum strongly opposed that there was not a broad coalition of groups united in opposition. i do not want to go into all the details of the bill. the native it was the pr democracy act. it was one of the only groups that was actively opposing it. it made the challenge greater. most of the bills coming out to receive very little -- the time to act is minimal at best. during this brief lively debate, there was almost -- i found myself wrestling with what would be the best way to get to our message out beyond eagle forum members and starch healing

members of congress away from supporting the bill. it hit me. i knew we really needed to get glenn back to talk about it. -- beck to talk about it and he has enormous influence. once we succeeded with that, he communicated how bad the legislation was, the fellas on capitol hill started ringing off the hook. -- the telephones on capitol hill started ringing off the hook. they picked our action alerts and our message made its way to the tea party movement. from all of this spontaneous grass-roots action, eagle forum gained about 2000 members in one day and we slept about 35 votes. we were fighting a little known issue that no other group was.

unfortunately, the bill did pass nearly, but it has been stalled in the senate. this legislative battle really taught me that you do not have to have lots of money, tons of staff, a lot of power, or years of experience to have -- to be influential in washington. it is a young conservatives, like alice, who are leading the biggest fights. that is the best part about being a young conservative bloc -- working in d.c. he definitely had it right when he said that power is not only what you have, but what the other side? you have. did you go about doing your job in the city from that friend of mine, the powers to influence the political process are relentless. thank you [applause] . >> i want you to tell them how

they can participate. >> we send out advocacy messages. something is coming up on the hill and it will get a vote, we will send out an action alert. the only way you can get the action alert is if you are registered on eagleforum.org. hit the subscribe button. as long as you are subscribed, you will get the action alert. you will receive them and they will be personalized so that you can contact your representative specifically. >> the message can go directly from your computer into your own member of congress. if there is a town hall meeting in your district, you will get an e-mail about that. the message that goes to your congressmen is basically a form letter that susanna rights.

you can adjust it. you can edit it and put your own personal relationship with the member of congress in. >> there is the option that you can afford it to your friends. the town hall meeting ones are really good because that really made our list grow. nobody wants to go to a town hall meeting themselves. they want to bring their friends and their family. coxa my question for you at -- >> you mentioned all of the issues that eagle forum works for. is there a particular issue category that is hardest to get the word out about? hardest to rally support for the struggle with? >> i used that one example of the pr debate. there is a cluster of three issues that i have noticed that our constitutional issues.

they have come up every year for the past decade. the d.c. voting rights act, the hawaii reorganization act, puerto rico democracy act. they come up every year, but they are not well understood. they're very quick. they come up and want to vote on it. there is never a large debate. those are three that are very difficult. >> one more. you have answered all their questions. >> this is about your job. how involved argue with the specific legislation? do you read it? do you have another group that you rely on to do that? >> there are other groups that rely on audits.

-- on us. >> phyllis has her weekly column. and she helps as well. -- angie helps as well. a lot of the issues that come up, they have, so many times in the past, we know what is there. we may have to look at specific language, but a lot of things are really repetitive. this is the first time they have been successful. yes, we do look at the language and analyze it. >> thank you, suzanne. [applause] >> now we have our students panel. since we seem to be rationed on chairs, i will ask the first two of our students to come up and take a seat. this is a time where we want to

hear from some of the students and their activism on campus. who are the first two are coming up? all right. i will ask each one to introduce yourself and your college and give us a little report 5-7 minutes. >> my name is kyle anderson and nine a senior at the university of northern colorado. when i first arrived on campus, i was surprised to learn that there was not a college republican group already established. and a friend of mine told me he wanted to start his own group, i had to help them out. we created a facebook group and we invited all of our friends. we spread all of these fliers around campus and we made announcements in class. on the night of the first meeting, we were nervous to see how many people would show up.

we were pretty disappointed that only 10 students showed up. my friends and i could not figure out how to get more involvement from the student body. i do go to a pretty conservative campus where i have more out of the conservative professors and i do liberal professors. then again, i am a business major. after months of disappointing attendance, we decided that we wanted to change our image on campus and do something controversial. as a new group, -- that was out of the question so be -- because we had no money. we decided to have a global warming beach party to end the year. we rented a volleyball nets and use our own money to purchase

enough hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato chips to feed about 40 people. this was about four times the rate of art and -- regular membership. we're pretty optimistic. car advertisements one now before the advent about a week. some liberals on campus had a problem with us using a polar bear for the mascot of the event. on the day of the event, we did about 40 people to show up. we did not really talk politics. it was mainly an evening for fellowship with like-minded students. the greatest reward was about a week afterward, we had our next meeting, we had about 15 extra members. some of them had been to our event. some of them had seen advertisements. some of them had read about how our global warming beach party and our campus -- and our campus newspaper.

the advice i would give is that controversy is not always a bad thing. it stirs emotions on both sides. the mark the educate themselves, the more conservative they become. -- the more they educate themselves, the more conservative they become. every year, we create an intramural sports team. we even create a poster of the top 10 things that annoyed liberals the most. although this poster was torn down pretty quickly, it was still worth it. that meeting where we brainstormed r list was the most lively meeting ever and it turned into eight great bonding experience. in high school, when the 2,000th -- when the 2004 election was occurring, we would always debate the bush election. it was usually me against my

teacher and about half a dozen other students. i was the only proponents for the republican side. after a few dozen debates, my teacher told the class. we should not be ashamed or embarrassed to be conservative. but we also cannot tak america to its founding ideas -- ideals alone. liberals use college campuses to indoctrinate students into the democratic party. everyone in this room has a responsibility to not be silent. will we stay silent, we are allowing the liberal indoctrination to take place in our campuses. our global warming beach party show students that it is ok to question of liberal ideology. every time we back down for more

conservative ideals because it is not politically correct to disagree with a gay marriage or global warming, we're strengthening the opposition by giving them a platform to say whatever they want. after all the government has done to take over the banking industry and the health-care industry, liberals are now telling america at that we need and other stimulus. recently, they are telling us that the tea party movement is about racism. we can no longer and we should allow remain silent. [applause] ] >> hello, everyone. my name is karen grant and i am from harding university. it is about an hour north of little rock. i story is not quite the typical going to liberal college story.

harding is a very conservative christian school. harding is a very conservative christian college, my story is a little bit different. i started going there -- i am going to address, as christians and as conservatives, we can testify to wholesome fundamental beliefs. there is an absolute moral truth. the bible is true. god is the universal and governing creator. we believe that christ died to redeem us from our sense. -- sins. when i began attending harding university, i noticed that there

is often an enormous disconnect between young christians professed faith and their actual world of you and believe. as a result of this disconnect, we see christians who can lead stop their fundamental beliefs, but they believe that abortion is permissible, that euthanasia is the case in some cases, the government does exist to take care of society, and that americans exceptionally some resulted not from individual liberty and equality but from exploitation of smaller nations. people considered themselves strict conservatives and a very passionate about the movement, so it was very odd to see the

disconnect. why is it relevant to our discussion? as conservatives, we cannot expect to saw the lead changed the political views of our nation or even expect republicans to act consistently if we cannot enact a world view consistent with the faith that we claim. as individuals, before we can reach out to other conservatives, we must. the disconnect to make our own actions consistent with our personal faith, reconstructing our faith. there is a disconnect at harding and i went home during christmas break and was very upset about it. christians and conservatives were trying to influence people toward a set of beliefs that are contradictory or no different than the ones they were trying to influence. i tell this to a family friend

and she said, why don't you hold a world view study? i had no idea how do this. she gave me a set of dvd is called the truce project. i held steady. -- the truth project. we met once a week. talk for a couple of hours. we would watch the video and discuss our faith, our world views and how that apply to society from our foundation so that we could then apply to other areas of our lives. it was very interesting to see how willing word -- people were to attend and how much they wanted to hear it. we had about 13 people to begin with and that turned into about nine consistent members. it was really small, but a very good discussion. the state response was incredible. feedback was super positive and

have already gotten a few requests to do this again next year. these are from students that i did not even know on campus. it was really exciting to see just how much they wanted to hear truth and how much they did not realize, i do have these contradictory beliefs. similar activities like this, they are not grandiose, but they do reveal a simple fact that people want to know the truth and want to live out their world view or if it consistent with the world view of the power to shape culture. the power to shape culture remains the most important as to why we need to. the disconnect between faith and world view. we tried to reach out of -- to opposing viewpoints, but the disconnect has torn our world view from our faith. we tried to reach out to other conservatives, but we cannot do this even with people with him we strongly agree -- strongly

disagree unless they're consistent in our own faith and arguments. this is all the more important because it remains our responsibility to reach out to a broken culture and to be, the shapers of society. as christians, we are called to do that. i want to show you a short video clip from the truth project. a is a very powerful perspective. -- it gives a very powerful perspective. is really short. it is about one minute. >> several years ago, i saw my son go to the closet and get something out and i noticed something from the first time. i said, stop, go back. i noticed something. i noticed that when he opened

up the closet door, at endicott light in the closet, have you ever notice that? have you ever wondered if the light goes out in the refrigerator. i got into the closet and i got -- i observed the living room. i discovered this principle. dark is does not overtake light, but like overtakes darkness. if there is darkness spreading to the land, it is not because somebody went out in the middle of kansas and opened a box of darkness. if dark as is spreading across the land, guess what, it is because somebody is hiding the light.

>> he was talking about how jesus is removing the lamps and from society, the land stamp of light. -- the land stand of light. i want you to think about the implications of this video. we are the lights and we have the true. of the nation is enshrouded by darkness and allies, it is only because somebody is hiding the light. maybe it is because we do not fully understand it ourselves and therefore do not know how to back up our claims. so we say nothing. this may be the reality, but there is no excuse. we bear the responsibility for society state. there is much more to shaping culture than faith and world view. conservative political activism is extremely vital and it is nothing that we should give up. but we must start here.

we must go back to the source. we must live out our live -- world view from that vantage point. we must reach out to other conservatives and solidify foundational world to be to stand upon. if you look at the problems in society, you see conservatives and republicans who are corrupt and disrespectful to the constituents because they did not practice what they preach. if you look at the next generation, we are the next generation, if you seek passionate conservatives, they may be very passionate, but they do not practice what they preach, when nothing is going to change in america. you are here today because you are exceptional and motivated. that is awesome. ultimately, not only knowing their political beliefs, but the

foundation of why we believe them, it is going to be more effective in bringing back the nation to our foundations. true change ultimately begins with the heart. thank you. [applause] >> i have a bit of a different twist to put all this. i am from milwaukee, wisconsin. we're trying to figure out how to raise the pulpit. [laughter] >> you push down. >> a very good. thank you so much. that is good. thank you. in milwaukee, i am not currently enrolled in any college, but those who are gracious enough to allow me to come.

i have an important message for all of us. many of us come from a christian background or a biblically based -- a lot of us, but not all of us. because of the different believes that we do have, many of them are based strictly out of the bible. for example, does anybody know where the three branches of government come from? in the old testament. does anyone know what burris is? it comes from isaiah that chapter 33:22. to hope that is our judge -- jehovah is our judge, king. based on the bible, they could have the most success in going through god's laws. that is why we have the three branches of government.

even the very fabric of the constitution is based off of the bible. i think that is pretty cool. we need to go back to that foundation. we can preach that we are pro- life and against abortion and stuff like that, the people want to know why. there's got to be a deeper level meaning to that. it comes from the bible. even though i am not currently involved in any specific college, i am going on a mission trip. i have been accepted -- i will begun to 11 countries in 11 months and i will be leaving in october. i get to practice what i preach. as a follower of jesus, icahn

said all i want, but if i am not actually doing what i am saying i'm going to be doing, how hypocritical is that? i would like to encourage you guys to be that light. that light penetrates the darkness in such a way that darkness can -- it has no power over it. in conclusion, be strong in your faith. pray for the government leaders. the lord wants us to do that in the bible. prefer one another. pray for phyllis. i do believe that god answers prayer. there's something about prayer that is three powerful. do not be afraid to be open

about your face. there is nothing to be afraid about. -- about your faith. take a strong stand and what you believe. you may be standing alone, but others will join you. that is the cool thing. once you stand up, somebody else is standing up. after a while, you get this big army of people who are a little bit nervous or afraid, but you stand strong. you'll get this great following. most of us here are christians or come from that christian background. do not be afraid to express that. as we do those things, and they are very important, they come from the biblical background.

thank you for coming. this conference has totally inspired me. i came here a little bit -- my battery was kind of love. just being able to meet the people nclb speakers, it is so inspiring. -- to meet the people and to see all the speakers, it is so inspiring. [applause] >> i am rising sophomore. i have heard that princeton is supposedly the most conservative -- conservative i believe. i was kind of skeptical of that. i do not think any i believe it is conservative. -- i.t. -- ivy league is

conservative. i wrote an essay that was a little bit against darling. it was very well received. -- darwin. six years ago, this whole hookup culture was very widely accepted. that was the norm. be a trick the liberals into saying that there is this the pop culture of myth. they're talking about it on their blogs. that is a huge success. the society has gone national and has created deep fidelity network. i really got involved in the princeton group. that group had an exciting year this year. we started off this year in october with respect like a week. it is a week where we have various pro-life events. we start off with sunday.

we have a nondenominational kind of event in the chapel where we have readings from all different kinds of religions, the bible, other readings from other religions and speakers. we have music interludes. we also have speaking events throughout the week and we conclude with a candlelight vigil. during that week, we also have a set up -- we set up images of a fetus in different points of development. that is right in front of the campus center. it really makes the center -- the campus aware that something is going on in the pro-life movement. our other huge event was march for life. we felt an entire boss. we had about 50 people going. we met -- that was wildly successful. we also have a one pro at --

pro-life reception each semester. we have 79 tenured faculty that supports these receptions. we have 12 staff. that is an amazing number. it has really grown in number. we also had some pro-life/pro- choice debates over dinner. the environmental and -- the environment quickly turned hostile. some grow said abortion was ok because sexual education is not adequate in the schools and kids not really know that sex does, in fact, lead to pregnancy. in conclusion, just a device to pro-life groups out there. the first really important thing is to focus on it respect life week and the march of life. if your group has a really

you will have a successful group. those two events really matter and promote awareness on campus. people see us all during the week. there are some of the events to choose from. you can mix and match. it is rarely successful. the march for life is successful because people also, because it is kind of a fund social escape. that has been successful, too. those are to campus friendly events to have. the second thing is that pro- life organizations on campus should focus on the abortion issue. although there are other important issues related to life, those are not as pertinent to young people and i do not think -- i think it starts to

cause some conflict in the pro- life group and confuses the main thrust of your group if you were starting to have different issues. it is really important to focus just on abortion. princeton pro-life pretty much just focus is on abortion. thank you for having me speak. it was great to talk about what we have been doing at princeton. we are scheduling a global warming event in the fall at princeton. i do not know how that will turn out. it was like pulling teeth to get a professor to speak in favor of global warming. we will see. [applause] >> thank you for sticking around today. a really means a lot for you have all -- for you all to have stayed around.

my name is david griffin and i am from oklahoma state university. i want to tell you a little bit about my background before i go into what i have done. i've been a lifelong oklahoma and. i grew up in one of the rightist counties. in canadian county. -- reddest county. i have always been interested in politics. i could not believe that in our free society, people would try to steal the elections. we know what they were doing. in 2002, i intended a gubernatorial debate as a 12 year old. i do not think many people can say they have done that. in high school, i helped we found our young republicans club, which had dissipated for a couple of years. i was later able to serve as

president of tt. i always enjoy debating the young democrats. i went off to college for the first time last august and i joined college republicans. i have always been a registered republican and then i have always been a conservative. i got to meet a lot of the elected leaders from the local areas. people running for different offices around our state. i am also interning at the oklahoma council of public affairs. what i wanted to do was a little bit more of an activist component to my college experience. one day, i was walking back to my dorm and i crossed in front of the library and there was a guy cabling from the leadership institute and he had some conservative books out. i do not know if sarah palin's book was out at the time. i asked him, what are you trying to do? are you selling anything? " he said -- he said, we are

trying to start a conservative club on campus. we want to start something called the young conservatives of osu. one night, we all met at starbucks. the favorite liberal chick place. there were three freshmen and there, including myself and a junior. that night, the group was born. the reason i decided to do it was to take a stand against what was going on in our country. we had some of the town hall meetings that past summer and i cannot believe that people with such a radical ideas were occupying the executive branch, words that -- were occupying the judiciary. we had a full professor that

served as our sponsor, which was very nice. he was well respected. it took a while to get founded. first, we had to give our constitution approved. we tried to use the constitution from the young conservatives of texas club. i am sure many of you have occurred about their activism. the administration really did not like that. they're pretty nit picky about your style and format for your constitution. we ended up paring down our constitution allots and finally got it approved. we held a health care form. we had matt ball, we had a longtime liberal activist who actually said he had never seen a government program he did not like. i also volunteered at the beginning of the event to present information on the health care situation and how

that would affect college students. this was a very effective event. we even got some liberals to show up to this event. we had a very good discussion about the role of government. with the private sector do a better job by in powering patients and individuals to be and more in charge of their health care? -- would the private sector do a better job? one of the reasons i am concerned about this is that our country believes -- is at a crossroads right now. we are facing a full-fledged socialism from this administration and this congress. this spread the wealth mentality that the president so famously told -- you know. we have many social issues on our campuses that are not being addressed. note issue -- issues like gay

marriage, a gay-rights, things of that nature. they're just being accepted as cold. if your tolerance, that is cool. i think it is time to take a stand against those issues. the liberals have given up on those issues. they're working really hard and trying to infuse those issues in popular culture. john adams said that our constitution was made only for moral and religious people. it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. i believe that is very true. another reason why i believe that we should all care is that i am an engineering major. i am very concerned about the tax structure and about all the debts that is adding on because there is a lot of students that come over from america to study

and our engineering colleges from india and china. if they cannot stop a business and be profitable, they're just going to go back to start engineering firms in asia and be able to charge a lot less and make a lot more money because the taxes are a lot lower over there. that really concerns me. what can i do, you might be asking. the time is now. it is time to get involved now. we need to stop this socialist track that our country is on before it is too late. one thing you can do is your college does not have a conservative club, found one. it would be -- existing clubs,

if you have an existing club under campus, get into a leadership position. we need active leaders on our college campuses, a visionary leaders, people to know where they want to go. have they created events -- have a creative and event. take action. get involved in the campaign in your area. we need to elect people to understand the constitution and our very principled and will not bowed down to the pressures that washington put on them. we need to get those people into office. get informed. read national review, read the

information on big government. reid phillips his column that she puts out every day. get to know an issue -- read phyllis's column. become an expert. people will seek you out. the united states is a giant island of freedom, achievement, well, and prosperity in a world hostile to our values. we are islands on our liberal college campuses. to grow your island. add more members to the conservative mold -- movement. we are the future and the time is now. thank you. [applause] >> as the very last person to speak today, i feel it is my

duty to be as brief and concise as possible. i represent dallas baptist university. thank you so much for allowing me to speak today. we are located in dallas, texas. we are a private institution that has about 3000 in our undergraduate program. i love my university. our colors are red, white, and blue. our mascot is the patriot. however, my conservative campus -- they believe that is the conservative viewpoints that tend to have a moral reception in scripture. that is very important for students. i have noticed that most of these students are not very politically active. that really burden to me. i saw out an opportunity to listen to an author in dallas.

his speech rally interpreted the constitution. it was my first experience with the heritage foundation and it was wonderful. in his speech he said that the conservative movement has the potential to be a fading heritage. this really bothered me. i started to have thoughts like, without a conservative party, why are the limits of human liberal powell? how can ethical and moral standards exist in our country? i knew i needed to take action. i gathered my resources on campus. i have been very active. i was a cabinet member in our student government association. i cannot contact is sold. nobody would return my phone calls. nobody was interested. they were not as political -- politically involve tiny. i knew that action had to be taken. i started to research different

activities. throughout the state of texas, there are chapters on most of our larger university campuses. as president, one of my greatest thrills has been to see over 1500 of our students become engaged in political activities. one of my favorite activities was constitution day. september 17 -- we use this day as a great opportunity to advertise our new chapter on campus. we set up a booth outside of one of our most popular buildings on campus. there was a constant student flow. we set up a booth and we had students to hand out pocket- sized constitution booklets. we had trivia questions with

questions that were the did you know type trivia questions about america. but what is to is to be able to appreciate the american history -- we want is students to appreciate deep american history. we just wanted to a great introduction, something positive. we had questions like, why was george washington a part of the constitutional signing, but not the declaration of independence? things like this drew attention to our booth. it gave our history majors an opportunity to shine, which was great for them. everybody else was able to reflect about american history. that started to cause a stir on campus. a second event involved being off of campus. we took a road trip. that really started to help

students to feel empowered to in the conservative movement. they started to see that the conservative movement has no limits. they were able to engage with other conservatives. all across the state, it was a rainy day, but everyone was able to enjoin together despite the awful conditions and we were able to discuss the texas legislature. we're able to encourage each other about being involved on campus. weaver able to educate each other. we were able to talk about bills. there were very sound -- there were some interesting bills. it was interesting to be able to be with like-minded people. i was so thrilled to seek students become politically engaged. it was wonderful. that led to one of our largest

event on campus. we called it the leadership mixer. we held this throughout the year ended became a community uniter. we invited local high-school students to come to our campus and unite with the current students. it was wonderful. we called a leadership seminar -- called it a leadership seminar. i opened the event with a speech entitled beyond campus activism. it was a huge hit. the high school students felt mentored by the college students. they made new friends am so thrilled to be involved in conservative groups when they get to college. the collegiate student felt a potential coming in with a new generation. they started to feel very

motivated. it was so much fun to see everybody interact with each other. everyone, despite their majors, began to understand that it is about educating each other. that is our duty as american citizens. it was so much fun to be involved in that successful event. i think it is something -- we started of small with a simple blue and we were able to endure year by uniting the community. i heard someone say one time, political parties come and go. the shift and transformed. it is principle that do not have these things. this is the key to the conservative movement and are nation. we can strengthen conservative principles and unite in nation by teaching, delighting, and

moving others toward action. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. it has been a wonderful panel. we enjoyed hearing from all of these students. thank you for staying. we are going to have are drawing in just a minute. i want to thank all of our speakers and all of our attendees. have you all put your name as an the box? -- names in the box? i am born to make a unilateral rule that you have to be present in order to be a winner in this drawing. that is right. somebody will walk away with the flip camera. all right. have you all enjoy it these days? [applause]

i have stirred them up. we will call her to close your eyes and reach in and pick one out. all right. who is a lucky one? [laughter] christa of oklahoma state university. [applause] there it is. right there. you can pick it up. lucky you. thank you for coming. in has been a great couple of days. i hope you feel that you have profited by it. god bless you.

[applause]

>> saturday, on "washington journal," a discussion on the midterm elections. then the director of food and consumer product safety stops by to talk about food safety legislation. later, michael lind explains why he believes comprehensive reform is not a good strategy for health care. "washington journal" takes your calls and e-mails starting at 7:00. >> they are all different. they have their different talents and their different

dangers. >> this weekend, robert service on his trilogy of books on a russian leaders. one about their relationship and roles in developing their form of communism. sunday night on c-span. >> the senate judiciary committee has postponed their votes on the nomination of elena kagan as supreme court justice until next tuesday. watch live coverage and learn more about the nation's highest court. candid conversations with all the justices, active and retired, providing unique insight about the court. it is available, -- in hard " -- hardcover. >> president obama warned americans do not make much of the fact that oil has stopped flowing from the broken wall in the gulf.

the president says the new cap on the well will allow up to 80,000 barrels of oil to be captured every day. he spoke briefly with reporters at the white house before leaving for vacation with the first family. >> good morning, everybody. i want to give everyone a quick update on the situation in the gulf. as we all know, a new cap was fitted over the bp oilwell earlier this week. this larger, more sophisticated, cap was designed to give us greater control of the oil flow as we complete the relief wells that are necessary to stop the leak. our scientists and outside experts have met through the night and continued this morning to analyze the data from the well integrity test. they're working to determine whether we can safely shut and

the wild using the new cap without creating new problems, including possibly countless new oil leaks in the the sea floor. even if they shot and is not an option, at this new cap and the additional equipment being placed in the gulf, will be able to contain up to 80,000 barrels a day. this should allow us to capture nearly all of the oil until the well is killed. it is important to remember that prior to the installation of this new cap, we were collecting about 25,000 barrels per day. for almost 90 days, all of us have taken hope in the image of clean water instead of oil spewing in the gulf, but it is our responsibility to make sure we're taking a course of action

and not looking for a short-term solution that could lead to even greater problems down the road. to the american people should rest assured that these decisions will be based on the science and what is best for the people of the gulf. i will take one or two questions. >> did you feel the earthquake, mr. president? >> i did not. >> sir, do you think this means that we're turning the corner in the gulf? tell the american people what you anticipate in the next few weeks ahead. they're still very anxious. >> i think it is important that we do not get ahead of

ourselves. one of the problems with having this camera down there is that, when the oil stopped gushing from everybody feels like, we are done. and we're not. the new cap is containing the oil right now, but scientists are doing a number of tests to make sure that, by putting this cap on, the oil is not seeking out elsewhere, in ways that could be even more catastrophic involves measuring the pressure while the cap is on today is not all in. it has to be interpreted by the scientists. here is the good news that i think everybody needs to understand. even if it turns out that we cannot maintain this cap and completely shut off the flow borel, what the new pact allows us to do is -- flow of oil, what the new pact allows us to do is

attached many more containment mechanisms -- new cap allows us to do is to attach many more containment mechanisms and attached them to ships. the final solution will be the relief wells. there is no doubt that we have made progress. the cap fits. even if it turns out that we cannot keep the containment cap on, it will allow us to capture much more oil and we will see less oil flowing into the gulf. in the meantime, we still have a big job to do. there is still a lot of oil out there. we have more skimmer's out there. there is better coordination on the ground. there will still be an enormous clean-up job to do. there is still a whole set of issues surrounding the king sure people are compensated properly with the $20 billion fund -- surrounding making sure that

people are common setup properly with the $20 billion fund. we have an amount -- an enormous amount of work to do. people are still suffering as a consequence of this disaster. we're making steady progress. i think the american people should take some heart in the fact that we're making progress on this front. >> are the relief wells still on target? >> so far, it is slightly ahead of target, but the problem on the relief well is not simply drilling all the way down, is also connecting it. that is a delicate operation would could -- which could take some time to >> was ahead of target mean? >> when does bp start paying fines according to the amount of oil spill? >> we will be taking measures of how much oil has spilled. those calculations will be continually refined. bp is going to be paying for the

damage that it has caused. that is going to involve not only paying for the environmental disaster and cleanup, but also compensating people who have been affected. that will be one component of the calculations that are made to >> what do you want to say to the people there? when will you go there next? >> i will be back sometime in the next several weeks. we are trying to make sure that the technical folks on the ground are making the best decisions to shut though this -- to shut the well down as quickly as possible, but we're getting the funds to the people quickly. i am staying in touch every day, during the progress, and getting briefs from the scientists. the key is to make decisions based on science and what is best on the people of the gulf, not on pr or politics. that is one of the reasons i wanted to speak this morning.

there were a lot of reports coming out in the media that seemed to indicate this thing was done. we will not be done until we actually know that we have killed the well and that we have a permanent solution in place. we're moving in that direction, but i do not want us to get too far ahead of ourselves. thank you very much everybody -- much, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

>> on july 10, c-span joined several other media outlets for a tour of some of the areas that have been affected by the oil spill. you're looking at grand isle, louisiana, where a lot of the cleanup operations are taking place. off the coast of this island, you can see a barge that is the degree being used for drilling,

but is now being used -- that is typically used for drilling, but is being used for clean-up operations. this is boehme -- boom used to protect the barrier islands of of the coast. here, you can see the south korean ship that has been converted to the largest oil skimmer in the world. this is the site of the deepwater horizon explosion. this is where they are drilling the relief wells, burning off gases build up, and many other relief operations.

here, you can see oil near the surface of a leaking pipe.

>> saturday, on "washington journal" -- a discussion on state legislatures and the midterm elections with louis jacobson. then, erik olson will talk about food safety legislation. later, michael lind of the new america foundation explains why he believes comprehensive reform is not a good strategy for

health care. "washington journal" take your calls and e-mails live every morning starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern, here on c-span. >> bay are the towering figures. and they are all different. they have their different talents, their different dangers. >> this week, biographer robert service on lenin, stalin, and leon trotsky. learn about their relationships and the roles they played in developing communism. that is sending at on c-span's "q&a." -- that is sunday night on c- span's "q&a." >> the senate judiciary committee has postponed their vote on elena kagan nomination -- on a london -- on elena kagan's nomination until tuesday. you can watch coverage live on

tuesday. the supreme court -- conversations with the justices. that is available in hardcover and as an e-book. >> state department spokesman p.j. crowley announced today that two former state department officials who were convicted earlier this year of spying for the cuban government had been sentenced. he also briefed reporters on the phone call between secretary clinton and british foreign secretary william hague on the british prime minister's trip to washington next week. these and other issues at today's 20 minute briefing. >> they have been sentenced for their respective roles in a 30- year conspiracy to provide highly-classified u.s. national information to the republic of cuba. i will defer to the department of justice for specific details on their sentences. we believe that, in this case, the severe punishment was

warranted by the nature of his crime, which was a serious breach of national security. by committing acts of espionage, he egregiously violated the confidence placed in him by the department of state and the american people. also, this morning, the secretary had a conversation with the foreign secretary hague. primary purpose of the call was to compare notes prior to prime minister cameron's visit to washington next week. she also used the opportunity to thank the united kingdom for its support of the new u.s./eu agreement regarding the terrorist finance tracking program. they agreed on the importance of continuing our efforts to prevent terrorists from using our financial systems to launch attacks. they also talked about the situation with respect to mr. m

ugrahi. in our mutual views of the release of him last year, that was a mistake. the secretary recently signaled to the foreign secretary ongoing congressional interest in this matter. i think we will have more conversations with the british government on this as we -- as congress continues to focus on the issue. finally, we released a statement last night. obviously, everyone in the world congratulates nelson mandela on his 92nd birthday this summer. >> where is the foreign minister? he is not in london. he is traveling, i believe. it is neither here nor there.

did they talk about that iroquois case at all? >> they did not. the muscle that is basically a dead letter, as far as you're concerned -- >> and that is basically a dead letter, as far as you're concerned. >> we have done what we could do. it appears to us that the u.k. has made their final determination. >> on the bp thing -- as anyone from state been invited to the hearings that senator kerry will be holding? >> at this point, no. >> do you expect to have someone at the hearing? >> that is up to the chairman to decide who wants to attend. >> when you say there are more conversations with the british on the subject, why would more conversations be necessary? >> the secretary is mindful that she has a request by a handful of senators to look into this matter. if we have not decided what

steps we will take -- we have not decided what steps we will take. the information that we will need revealed is from the u.k. and the scottish government. anything that we would do would require their cooperation. she has mentioned the issue and its importance, not only to the congress and our government, but most importantly to the families of the victims. i think we will continue to work with them to see how we can answer the questions that have been raised in recent days. >> did she specifically asked for cooperation from the british government? >> we have not made a specific request of the british government. this was to alert the foreign secretary of the importance of the issue.

obviously, that is is already recognized within the u.k. bp and a new government in the u.k. have both put out statements. they agree that, in our joint view, this was a mistake. we're still evaluating how we can best work through the request that the senators have made them less. >> my the government be amenable to cooperate in such an investigation is launched? did the secretary said this will come up on them prime minister's visit next week? >> the secretary has indicated that in my be appropriate for the british government to communicate with congress to make sure that they fully understand what transpired a year ago. it was something that was mentioned. i will defer to the british government' to decide what actin will take. >> how about that meeting next week?

will this be on the agenda when the prime minister visits? >> it was not at the civic. the secretary and foreign secretary will see each other in kabul. >> how long was the call? >> the call was 12 minutes. the bulk of the call was related to the prime minister's visit next week. >> which did not include this. how much of a percentage of those 12 months -- 12 minutes were devoted to this? >> seven minutes and 43 seconds. i cannot tell you. i do not know. >> p.j., what does congress want the secretary to do to find out -- to do -- to find out? >> i have a letter in front of me from the four senators who want us to look into the circumstances surrounding the decision by the scottish authorities one year ago. obviously, there has been more

than one correspondent. they're questions regarding the medical advice. who gave it? how was it considered? how did the scottish authorities reached the judgment that, on humanitarian grounds, based on the understanding that mr. mugrahi had a relatively short time to live, they would make this decision to release him on humanitarian grounds? that is one area. clearly, questions have been raised about the ability of the medical information -- the fidelity of the medical information that was entered into this thinking. there are questions about bp and its contacts with the u.k. government in an earlier time frame, regarding the negotiation of a prisoner transfer agreement between the u.k. and libya.

i think the u.k. has been clear that these two issues were worked on separate tracks. we are -- the purpose of mentioning it today was simply to highlight for the foreign secretary that this is a very important issue to the american people. it is going to be something that we will be addressing four of per -- for a period of time. we will respond to the four centers and provide the best perspective -- four senators and provide them with the best perspective. >> thank you for that. is there any attempt -- is the state department looking into any types of pressure a could put on libya to reverse libya's original decision? to reverse the return of mr.

mugrahi? is there anything the u.s. could do? >> again -- i mean -- in terms of pressure, obviously, we continue to express our concern and to say, categorically, that every day that mr. mugrahi spends as a free man in libya is an affront to the victims of pan am 103. that is a firmly held beliefs by the american people. from a legal standpoint, his sentence -- the case was carried out. the sentence was applied under a special scottish tribunal. we respect the fact that this was the decision that the scottish authorities have the of 40 to make. we regret that decision did as to whether we have any legal recourse, these are the things we're looking into. it is unclear that we do.

>> the secretary put out a statement about the suicide bombings in iran, followed by a statement this morning from president obama, also condemning the deaths of the innocent iranians. i am wondering why it appears that members of the administration are actively trying to get mr. amiri either jailed or executed for his role. presumably, he is also innocent. why is it that people are coming out and talking about his role as a cia mole and insider and providing information to the u.s.? >> you have made two links that puzzle me, quite honestly. >> you are expressing concern about iranian civilians on one hand. on the other hand, you're not using very diplomatic terms.

trying to screw someone who screwed you guys. what is the deal? >> first of all, for whatever reason, the only person speaking on the record about him is me. i will pass the chalice to someone else. i know that there are a number of unidentified voices who are writing certain details. i am not able to cooperate -- corroborate any of those details about what -- who did what to when, where, and how. our expressions of condolence and our condemnation of the terrorist attack, and the claim of responsibility by jundallah -- we have made similar statements in the past. we condemn terrorism in all of its forms, anywhere in the world. the citizens of any country who are victimized by acts of terrorism -- we find those

regrettable. we find those acts of terrorism cowardly and repugnant. i would not link the two. we are actively combating terrorism in all of its forms all over the world. we are seeking cooperation from all countries around the world, including enron, which is a -- including iran, which is a big spot for terrorism. we're working with countries of round the world to reduce terrorism. >> why is it important to get the word out that he was a spy for the united states? >> i am not here to characterize a mr. amiri, one way or the other. he paid a visit to the united states. he chose to return to iran. >> are you aware of the press

reports that his life may be in danger? >> during the time mr. amiri acted and made decisions on his own. his decisions may have put his life in danger, but i cannot say. >> he did not make the decision to be labeled as a u.s. spy in the u.s. press. >> again, we did not kidnap mr. amiri. he traveled freely to the united states. he has traveled back to around freely. the consequences of these actions, i cannot predict. >> the consequences of his actions, you might not be able to predict but don't you think it is likely that he will face some kind of punishment, whatever it is coming in iran, now that people are coming out and talking about what his role was? are you trying to get rid of

this program, whereby you encourage defectors to come over? it seems like you're doing a good job of it -- not you personally -- but the administration is doing a good job of sabotaging its own program. or it is sending a warning to other people who might be part of the program that they should not be here -- that they can decide to return on their own free will -- but you guys will blow the whistle and make it more difficult for them to live. >> i'm not sending any messages to anybody on this case. >> do you have any reaction about [unintelligible] there are members acting [unintelligible] >> well, we have -- we are examining those reports. some of this is not new, in the sense that there have been concerned for some time of

cross-border interaction and involvement in insurgent or terrorist activities within " columbia -- within columbia -- within colombia. we have been concerned about this for some time. it is one of the reasons why, since 2006, they have been judged not to be fully cooperating on an anti-terrorism efforts. >> on japan -- do you have any readout on yesterday's teleconference? do you think this discussion will be completed by the end of august? >> the meetings are continuing today. i do not know what that

foreshadows, but we're earnestly working through the technical details of the basing arrangements. >> do you expect that will be completed by the end of august? >> i know that is the target, but as to whether we will be able to work through the details, i just cannot say at this point. >> apparently, they're going to attend the call bang -- the kabul meeting. the iranian foreign minister. will the secretary interact with him? >> i doubt it. >> there is a bit of concern in southern florida over the plans by a spanish oil companies to drill off cuba's northeast coast. do you have any concerns -- does the state department have any concerns about this in light of

what is happening not too far away? >> let me take the question. i do not know how much we know about that. >> there in an exploration stage. >> i will take the question. -- they are in an exploration stage. >> almost free. >> yesterday, the assistant secretary had mentioned the u.s. talks with north korea. what is the united states' final destinations of diplomatic interactions with north korea in the future? >> our final destination is pretty clear. it is a denuclearized korean peninsula and the north korea that is able to play a constructive role in the region. that is not currently the case. we are trying to see how we can

move north korea along a different path toward that final destination. that is still a work in progress. >> assistant secretary shapiro -- the obama administration loves israel, please vote democratic speech -- he said that the obama administration has taken action to expand security cooperation and assistance with israel to an unprecedented level. he also refers to the 2007 memorandum of understanding that was signed by the bush administration in israel to provide $30 billion in assistance to the israeli security systems over 10 years. i'm wondering what this administration has done -- is it anything more than what would have done -- would have been done regardless of who won the

last election? would it have happened anyway based on the 2007 memorandum of understanding? ,> let's say, first of all there is broad continuity in u.s. foreign policy. it goes across democratic and republican administrations. we have all recognized the value and importance of the u.s.- israeli security relationship. as andrew shapiro said in his speech today, we think it is important. a secure israel will be better positioned to make the difficult decisions that it faces on peace with its neighbors. it is in our interests to work with israel, to ensure, not only

its security, but also, in the wide range of projects that we have with israel, we share information technology. this in turn benefits the united states. there has been a lot going on on this front, going back several administrations, to israel's foundation. security cooperation has intensified over the past 15 or 20 years. all we are saying is, how we found it in 2009, we have continued to aggressively work and nurture this relationship. there have been new programs started since 2009. there has been a maturation of programs that were started not only by the bush administration, but by the clinton administration, and probably going back to the first bush

administration. it is an indication of continuity. we story in today's paper -- got high marks from one individual who does not normally go out of his way to commend a democratic administration for its handling of this particular dimension of it -- of our relationships. this is something we have put a lot of emphasis on over the past 18 months, because security is a fundamental dimension of our efforts to achieve lasting security and peace in the region. >> you do not believe it is a bit disingenuous, when it would have been brought to that level anyway, based on an agreement that was signed years ago? >> i do not think that is hyperbole at all. we place great emphasis on this. we have tangible accomplishments. those were pointed to in his

speech. what is crucial is that this cooperation is mutually beneficial and it reinforces what we're doing with george mitchell in the region as we speak. and a fair enough. can you point to anything specifically -- >> there enough. can you point to anything specifically that this administration has done that would not have been done anyway? >> i will review that. have a nice weekend. >> saturday on "washington journal," louis jacobson, erik olson, and michael lind. he will talk about what he believes comprehensive reform is not a good strategy for health

care. "washington journal" take your calls and e-mails live, every morning, starting a 7:00 p.m. eastern, here and c-span. >> the are the towering figures. they are all different. they have their different talents. they have their different dangers. >> this weekend, biographer robert service on his trilogy of books on russian leaders -- lenin, stalin, and leon trotsky. learn about their relationship and their roles in developing their for of communism. that is sunday night on c-span's "q&a." >> this weekend on "booktv," the holland book fair with author panels on religion, human rights, diversity in publishing, and african-american history. n saturday.e o the impact of falling rents -- of ayn rand.

after that, a columbia university professor discusses his new book on henry luce. a weekend filled with nonfiction books on c-span2. for the complete schedule, go to booktv.org. >> they spoke with reporters about their opposition to the democrats'economic policies. this is about 15 minutes.

>> of the met -- the american people continue to ask, where are the jobs? we met with organizations that represent 4.5 million american employers who hire about 46 million americans. we were there to listen to them. their ideas -- to listen to them and their ideas about how to get our economy going again. there are a lot of barriers to job creation in america. we see a lot of uncertainty in washington, that has many american employers great concern about what the future is going to look like. yesterday, mr. kantor and i sent a letter to the president, asking him to listen to private- sector employers about their ideas to get our economy going again. it is clear that the path that we've been on of the last 18 months has not worked and is not working to the american people

want to go back to work, but they're not going to get there if the government continues to put all kinds of impediments in front of american employers. >> we have seen the administration continued on the spiral of non productivity today did not seem to know how to get out of it. they're bound by an orthodoxy that says that you can borrow and spend your way into prosperity. the composition that we just had made it very clear that is the pathway -- the conversation that we just had made it clear that is the pathway to underperformance. we heard from private-sector job graders who articulated that there are obstacles -- the job creators who articulated that there are obstacles. the rhetoric -- the anti- business rhetoric that there is in washington is more than just symbolic. it is creating a great deal of uncertainty. they also laid out some substantive proposals.

we will continue to wrestle with those. we're focused on job number one -- job creation in this country. aaron schock. >> after a depressing week in washington where the majority focused on things like flood insurance reform and a telecommuting and bill, i am headed home. the one issue people keep telling me is for us to focus on jobs, incentivizing on to the north to go out and take risks to create jobs, which will ultimately turn the economy around. we talked to the people who create jobs, not the federal government and the bureaucrats, but the entrepreneurs, who gave a long list of ideas of an agenda that we can move forward as a congress. i look forward to working with their leadership, mr. roskam, and our website.

the dialogue must continue. but participants here today and those who watched it on the web, viewers around the country -- you can continue to log onto americaspeakingout.com, where you can register your ideas about creating jobs. you can look for the ideas you want to see. we will continue pushing forward in congress. >> any questions? >> any comment on the oil well being capped? >> finally, thank goodness. let's keep it that way. >> does the administration deserve any credit for it? and it has been 87 days of oil spewing out of there. -- >> it has been 87 days of oil spewing out of there. let's understand what happened so we can be sure it never happens again. >> did you hear anything new?

if so, what? >> as i go around the country, i hear it a lot of what was said in the room today. all of the uncertainty coming out of washington scares employers. it freezes them appear there and free -- they're afraid to invest in new employees, a new equipment, new plants, because they do not know what the rules are. they do not know the tax rate. they do not know what the new regulations will be with regard to the new health care. cap and trade bill hangs out there. there is a whole slew of other regulations and higher taxes. you can i get employers to live with all of the uncertainty that exists -- you cannot get employers to move with all the uncertainty that exists. >> what is the argument against what the democrats keep saying is a modest jobs bill that gives aid to the jobless and has some other stimuli in it to help us

over the rough edges? >> the stimulus spending that washington continues to propose does nothing to get the private sector moving. all it does is one more government. the american people want to go back to work. -- is fund more government. the american people want to go back to work. they're not looking for another unemployment check. we want to make sure they have the help they need. if washington is going to spend that money, we ought to find other offsets so that we're not handing -- adding to the debt. >> 1 suggestion was to have a total ban on all new federal regulations. do you support that? am i think having a moratorium on new federal regulations -- >> i think having a matorium on new federal regulations is a great idea. it sends a signal to the private sector that they will have some breathing room. there is problem away to do this with some exemptions for emergency regulations that could

be needed for some particular agency or another, but if the american people knew there was going to be a moratorium in effect for a year -- that of federal government was not going to issue thousands of more regulations, it would give them some breathing room. >> so a one-year moratorium? >> take your pick. >> is there something to be said for meeting in a forum like this, where you hear ideas in a different way rather than being in your office? people can watch this in the ins -- on the internet. is there a difference in this forum? >> i think the interaction amongst the different employer groups is helpful. it is also helpful to see how much unity -- how much unanimity there was around the table about what the barriers were and what some of the ideas were in order to get job

creation moving. how about mr. happy in the back? are you asleep? >> no, sir. >> thank you, all. [laughter] >> looked at the work of the senate still needs to do to continue on the unemployment benefits. we spoke to one reporter about the legislation. and now we're joined on the phone by dan friedman. >> democrats fell one vote short of passing the unemployment benefits extension. they needed the additional vote, they think, to pass it appeared

with him sworn in on tuesday, the senate will then turned to the unemployment extension and presumably passed act with about 60 votes. >> why has this been such a difficult issue for the house and senate to get through? >> largely because it pits to pretty potent political issues against each other. and the democratic side, there is joblessness and the economic situation. particularly for republicans and some democrats, there is the deficit and federal spending, which has become something they are willing to vote on and vote against extending unemployment benefits. they feel they have a viable political argument for those they are taking. the republican votes have not been there, other than a few different republicans who have

voted with democrats. both parties seem to feel they can solve the argument they have been making. aware of the specifics on the extension -- >> what are the specifics of the extension for unemployment benefits? >> depending on what state you live in, you can get the unemployment, and then federal unemployment for a different amount of time, depending on the unemployment rate in the state. since the end of the month of may, when congress first -- when it failed to extend the benefits. they have been expiring for different people on different tiers or different places in how long they have been receiving unemployment benefits. more than 2 million people have lost their benefits in that time. for those people, they would be retroactively covered, back through the beginning of june for those of an offense. they would continue receiving benefits -- for those benefits.

they would continue receiving benefits through november 30. >> the appointment of this temporary senator from west virginia and his swearing-sinn next week, the senate is likely to pass an extension of unemployment benefits. as you see it, is this the last time this issue will come up before the november election? >> it sounds like it. the democrats are upset they have not been able to extend these benefits. they like to talk about this. they think it is a good issue for them politically. it is the last time, i think, that they will vote on extending unemployment benefits, but it is certainly not the last time the democrats will talk about republicans not agreeing to extend benefits on an emergency basis. they think that issue will be big in the election. >> dan friedman covers capitol hill for "congressdaily."

dan friedman, thank you for that update. >> thanks for having me. >> we are covering the first of two debates of the week and between republicans -- incoming john mccain and his gop challenger. here are the latest ads. when word got out that j.d. hayworth starred in an infomercial promoting free government money, his response was -- >> yes, i appeared in this. i learned -- i learned the statement caveat emptor -- a buyer beware, buyer beware, buyer beware. >> j.d. hayworth, pork barrel spending, lobbyist, huckster -- boulder p where -- voter beware. >> i am john mccain and i approve this message. >> tired of john mccain's negative ads? so i might. john mccain is hiding his record behind false attacks on my husband. john mccain has sold out the people of arizona on

immigration, bailouts, and tax increases. john mccain has agreed -- has embraced character assassination to keep his job. he should be ashamed. j.d. is not perfect, but he is a principled conservative. >> i am j.d. hayworth and i approved this message. >> joining us from politico newsgroup is -- newsroom is a politico reporter. will those ads be part of the debate tonight? >> absolutely. there is also debate tomorrow night. they have double-booked these debates over this weekend. it will be to go straight nights of barbs being treated and all kinds of fantastic political theater. we will see a lot of these same things. they will talk about who is the better conservative. they'll talk about immigration. it is a very controversial issue

in the state of arizona, because of the recently-passed immigration law. >> the debates are back-to-back. why is that? j.d. hayworth has said that john mccain has been reluctant to debate him. >> john mccain's campaign agreed to to debates. they put them in one weekend. they want to get them over with. j.d. hayworth requested several debates -- many more than john mccain would agree to, frankly. this is what they have agreed to. it is a short, compressed weakened, and it works to john mccain cost advantage to get them over in one -- john mccain's advantage to get them over in one weekend. >> if there was a primary now, who would win? >> i think john mccain purity as a solid lead. it was more competitive about a month ago -- i think john mccain. he has a solid lead. i think it was more competitive

about a month ago before these ads came out. they have been devastating for j.d. hayworth's tim kaine. >> the latest polls show the john mccain is at 64% to j.d. hayworth boss 19%. also, -- j.d. hayworth's 19%. what impact has the third candidate had? >> very little. if the race got close -- that poll is basically an outline air. many polls have showed it more like a 12-point race. that one with 65 percent that is definitely an outlier. it will be attend to -- a 10 to 15-point race. let's remember that independent candidates tend to be over counted. >> it is the tea party having an impact? >> the tea party is having an impact in almost every race,

especially republican primaries. not as much as some other states. arizona -- you have a very interesting and frankly fraction republican party. you have very conservative, ceentrist -- centrist moderate. >> the debate is tonight. there is another one on saturday night. we will cover tonight's debate live on c-span. -- on c-span.org. we will also air it on television at 11:30 p.m. for more information, go to our web site c-span.org. thank you very much. >> saturday on "washington journal" -- the discussion on state legislatures in the midterm elections with louis jacobson, a contributor to "governing magazine." then, erik olson talks about

food safety legislation. later, michael lind of the new america foundation explains why he believes comprehensive reform is not a good strategy for health care. "washington journal" take your calls and e-mails live, every morning, starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern, here and c-span. next, a look at how louisiana businesses are fairing during the bp oil spill cleanup. c-span spoke with the chairman of the louisiana steve for a bit -- seafood and -- spoke with the chairman who spoke about the fishing grounds and how the muscles of opportunity program is affecting his business. -- the vessels of opportunity program is affecting his business. >> nikoloz areas that we need. that is our -- they close the areas that we need to fish. that is one of our biggest challenges. we need people to understand that everything is safe.

we need to have more areas open. we need to have more vessels of opportunity to go back to work fishing. >> how many fishermen are out on the water now? >> in may of 2009, we had 4500 fishermen fishing. in may of 2010, we had 2800. it is about 1600 to 1700 difference. the vessel's of opportunity program is those who are waiting to go to work for bp. there are several hundred vessels signed up. the difference between those signed up and those working is almost the same. our goal is to get those fishermen back to work when we have open areas. >> what is the incentive for a fisherman? >> i am trying to get bp or ken feinberg -- we had a good conversation -- to give the

fishermen and bonus based on last year's average prices of each fishery over and above the top prize -- a 30% bonus. if they went to the dock, they would get their normal price, plus a 30% kick. that would give them incentive to go back to work. their mitigating 7% of damages. if the guy is not fishing, that is 100% damages. you can save 70%. the consumer needs to understand that the restaurants they have the net across the country -- eaten at across the country are the same restaurants they have eaten at before. you have the same safe quality seafood that you have always had. that is part of the process. the distributors are selling -- were selling will make doubly sure that the quality is there. you should be less afraid today

-- not that you should have been afraid before. our testing protocol is much heavier than it has ever been. we have all kinds organization's testing, including the fda. we are under a microscope. any product that goes to market is safe, more so than everything you have seen before, because of the protocol in place. you can help us by supporting us. do not listen to the hype of our competitors who say they are getting it from the pristine waters of wherever -- our water is great. our fish are great. areas that are open are fine. there are only precautionary closings. exxon of these was heavy crude. this is a light, sweet crude -- a very sweet and different product. there are tar balls all the time . we're being very cautious.

we're concerned about our fisheries and fisherman. i told ken feinberg that $20 billion -- if we lose our culture and heritage, that is not enough. 1/3 of the domestic seafood from the -- in the lower 48 states comes from louisiana. we got 37 million pounds in may of 2009. in may, 2010, 12 million. that is plenty of product. it is more than the rest of the states in the gulf put together. this is part of my processing facility. it is a local seafood distribution plan. these are fresh caught shell crabs that we get in daily. this is a delicacy in the louisiana. a start in early spring and end in the early fall. . you're looking at 50,000 crabs. everything is refrigerated.

we are under -- it is self- control of your own plant as far as hazard analysis. we have a lot of paperwork that we do every day. this is the main filet room. we normally have 30,000 or 40,000 pounds of fish in here. right now, we might have 10,000 or 12,000. the processing is over here.

see the blood? they are real fresh. these are mainstays of the marketplace. these process over here. they will go to the restaurants. somebody will be eating this for lunch today. again, over here, tuna. black drum. a lot of that right now. fresh snapper. a group of filets. i buy from a lot of local

fishermen. here is the -- the processed product, including the rainbow trout and the oysters. this is the processed meat that we're getting. that is a we can hold 100 dozen pounds of fish in this cooler. -- 100,000 pounds of fish in his cooler. holding conference calls, talking to each other, twice a week.

as chairman of the seafood board, we're going to be very aggressive. we will let people understand what is going on. we need to get the spill closed. that is the first in has to happen. then we start our job in earnest. everybody in the country needs to know that the way to help louisiana is to eat louisiana seafood because it is very safe. >> they are the towering figures. they're all different. they have their different talents. they have their different dangers. >> this weekend, robert service on his trilogy of works on russian leaders, lenin, stalin, and leon trotsky in. learn about their relationship and roles in developing communism. that is on sunday.

>> this weekend, author panels on religion, human rights, the receipt in publishing, and african-american history. it is live all day saturday, starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern. minor and is also here this weekend. -- ayn rand is also here this weekend. it is a weekend filled with nonfiction books on c-span 2. for a full schedule, due to book andtv t -- booktv.org. learn more about the nation's highest court anin c-span 2

latest book. in c-span's latest book. >> the senate banking committee heard from president obama's three nominees to the federal reserve board just a day after the board released a new economic forecast. it lowered expectations for economic growth this year. if the senate confirms all three nominees, the federal reserve board will have all seven numbers for the first time since early 2006. this is about two hours. >> paul and i love to tell the

story. several years ago, i have been sitting in a picture that jim johnson said in and there was a chaotic hearing. i can remember the subject matter, but the room was exploding with chaos of one kind or another. paul harding made the decision to retire his it very extinguish career in the congress. he took his right arm and put it around my shoulder. with his left hand, he swept around the room and said, "just think, in six months, all of this will be yours." [laughter] i'm going to break with tradition. these are busy days. normally, we would begin with an opening statement and senator shelby would make consultation with my friend from alabama. i would like to invite our colleagues who are here to introduce the witnesses. then we will make some opening

statements ourselves and then we will get to our witnesses. if you bear with us, we have very distinguished nominees this morning and we will proceed in that matter. but you have the votes here. paul does not. i want to make sure that we take care of you as well. >> thank you. it is a great pleasure for me to be here this morning to express my strong support for dr. janet yellen, president obama's nominee for vice chairman of the federal reserve. i know dr. yellen. she has dedicated her life to understanding the complex field of economics. her background makes for a strong candidate for vice chairman at a time when the country is recovering from the

economic crisis. dr. yellen graduated summa cum laude a from brown in 1967. she has a doctorate in economics from yale from 1971. she began her teaching career as an assistant professor at harvard where she taught from 1971 to 1976. for 1977 to 1978, she served as the economist at the federal reserve board of governors. if in 1979, she moved onto another teaching position, the summit the london school of economics. in 1980, dr. yellen began as an assistant professor at the university of california berkeley. she has been there ever since. today, she is professor emeritus of business and economics. twice, she has been awarded teacher of the year at uc berkeley's hodge school of business. during her time at berkeley and elsewhere, dr. yellen has published numerous research works. they include the noted "waiting for work," a static for

unemployment completed with her husband, a nobel prize-winning economist who is here with janet today. her work has been published in the journal of economics, business economics, and the brookings papers on economic policy, among other publications. but treeline has also held a number of other academic and advisory -- dr. yellen has also held a number of other academic and advisory positions. she is a member of the advisory board on economic activity at the brookings and an adviser to the congressional budget office. her research is focused on unemployment, monetary policy, and international trade. this combination of expertise will be beneficial as she weighs issues with the rising debt and high unemployment levels. we were just talking about that on the side, waiting for my colleagues.

from 1994 to 1997, dr. yellen sat on the board of governors of the federal reserve. she focused on consumer credit and small-business lending, two areas vital to our economy. in 1997, she left the federal reserve to chair the council of economic advisers during the clinton administration. since 2000 and for, she has served as -- since 2004, she has served the federal reserve from san francisco. along the way, she has received numerous awards and commendations. these include the wilbur cross medal from yale in 1997, fellowship at the yellowish -- fellowship that the yellow

corp., the sydney raw board by the economics economic package by the women's economic round table. -- by the women's economic round table. this will add another phenomenally trained economist to the federal reserve board. bottom line, and janet yellen has the depth of knowledge and experience required to make the important decisions that could possibly have a strong positive and profound impact on our economy. i heartily recommend her to this committee. >> senator, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> stocwe would like to have toy with us, but we know hospitals can be. >> i would like to be excused.

>> ok. i want to thank you very much for being here as well. let me turn to my colleagues. >> thank you very much, chairman dodd. first, let me thank and welcome all three of the nominees for the federal reserve board of governors. we appreciate your willingness to serve our nation during this very difficult time. we also welcome your families because we know this is a joint effort that will require the sacrifices of family and we thank you very much for your willingness to step forward in this very responsibility. -- this very important responsibility. we are very proud of zero bloom. we are proud that she is going to be on the board of governors. she is joined by her husband

jamie who is a state senator of maryland with a very distinguished career and their three children. she is a 1986 graduate of harvard law school. she also graduated from amherst college magnum collodi in economics and 5 beta kappa. in 2007, she was appointed commissioner in the state of maryland. she has done an outstanding job in supporting banks to the challenges of the financial crisis. she has been praised by the maryland bankers association and the maryland consumer rights coalition for a fair, balanced approach to regulation in our state. that is no easy task to get both the bankers and the consumers to believe that you are doing the right thing and i applaud her for her dallas leadership in the state of maryland. -- for her balanced leadership

in the state of maryland. she served on the joint economic committee to congress. i am sure shall continue her commitment to keep our banks safe and sound for dedication and work ethic are tremendous asset to our nation at this critical time. i wholly -- i wholeheartedly recommend terminatioher nominat. >> paul, welcome back to the

familiar haunts. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i am pleased to be back with you. we used to sit up there and conspired together. i have commit. i am here in strong support of sarah bluegrass in to be on the federal reserve board. -- sara bloom raskin. i am not going to repeat the biographical statement that senator card in made.

i do want to make a few quick observations. sarah has been an outstanding commissioner of financial regulation for the state of maryland over the last three years. forhe 1990's, she served five years on the staff of the banking committee. she was an outstanding member of the staff, very measured in her judgment, extremely hard- working, very smart, and very able to do with people across the board. she was part of a terrific staff, including, incidentally, kathy casey who went from the committee staff to the sec and is serving there now with distinction. i want to take just a moment of the committee's time to quote

some letters that have come in in support of sarah. the conference of state bank supervisor has written to chairman dog and ranking member shall be. -- chairman dodd and ranking shelby.shall b she brings leadership to her agency and maryland's financial industry. the conference of state supervisors have benefited from her. additionally, she chaired our regulatory restructuring task force.

she was also pointed to the federal financial institutions examination council state liaison committee where she has effectively represented state banking regulators in july and efforts with the federal banking agencies on a broad range of regulatory and supervisory issues. in just three years, she has a sand an important leadership role in the conference of state bank supervisors. i think that speaks well to her talents and her abilities. the present c e zero close to the letter saying that she enjoys the fall of professional support of her fellow commissioners across the country. we hope that the committee and the whole senate will act quickly in confirming her.

we all know with whom we have interacted on issues over the years. her service says marilyn commissioner of financial regulation has given her a practical understanding of the operational concerns of community bankers as they serve their communities and comply with regulatory demands. she appreciates the vital role that community banking plays in the economic life of small and mid-sized communities. she serves on the border of the conference of state bank risers, chairs the legislative committee, the regulatory restructuring task force. then he goes on to close by saying, "i hope she can be confirmed quickly so that the board may have the benefit of

her experience as they navigate the remainder of the economic recovery." and we also have a statement from kathleen murphy. "commissioner has been accessible to the commission on a member -- on a number of important issues. her belief in a vibrant state banking system and her experience with the federal reserve bank of new york, the unit -- the u.s. senate banking committee assuming the chairmanship of the legislative committee of the conference of state banks. in addition to all of this, as my colleague pointed out, cerro

that the consumer advocate a war from the maryland consumer rights coalition. she obviously has shown an ability to come up with some very practical solutions to some very difficult problems. i simply close with this observation. we depended upon sarah very much when she was on the staff of the committee. she was really one of our top people. she brought terrific analytical abilities to work. she had measured and good judgment. she had the capacity to work a very well with others. i think she's going to be a very important addition to the federal reserve board and the really commend her to you in a

very strong and unqualified manner. >> thank you very much. all of this year remember sarah very much as a part of the committee staff. welcome back to the other side of the table. we're delighted to have you with us this morning. i am going to take a few minutes for some open comments. then we will swear in our witnesses and proceed with some questioning for them. we thank you very much for coming by this morning. none of us can never plan these things these wit -- this way, but the coincidence of having the three nominees here this morning and sometime later today, we will be voting on the

financial real tory bill -- financial regulatory bill. today, we are considering five very highly nominated nominees. we have three candidates to serve as federal reserve board governors. one of them has been nominated to a four-year term but will also consider a second panel. the first will serve as the export-import bank of the united states and the federal housing finance agency. these positions are extraordinarily important because of the critical role that the federal reserve plays in our economy, be it through the exercise of monetary

policy, the supervision of national institutions, or a slender rose less resort. as arbiter of the nation's federal policies, interest-rate have profound effects on the performance of the real economy. the financial reform legislation that congress is poised to consider, the federal reserve functions will expand. the federal reserve will be charged with seeing the functioning of these complex organizations and and diet -- and identifying the excessive risk-taking that led this country to the verge of near collapse.

while the financial reform legislation imposes new conditions, the fed will still retain the awesome power to put billions of dollars of taxpayer money on the line. given his position and our economic system, much depends on how the fed carries out its varied responsibilities. the fed's track record has been mixed. the fed had authority, if used, could have prevented the serious deterioration of mortgage underwriting standards. in my view, the threat -- the fed declined to alarm authorities.

the fed also had supervisory authority over bank holding companies. but events revealed that supervision was inadequate. large bank holding companies were allowed to accumulate significant leveraged exposures to mortgage-related assets. the losses they suffered helped create the financial crisis from which we have yet to recover. because of these players -- these failures, we have created a new consumer financial protective agency. as we work their way through the last year, -- as we worked our way through the last year, the fed will be part of the

oversight council which will function as an early-warning system responsible for spawning and mitigating threats to overall stability. the fed will have responsibility for devising an imposing high and capital liquidity and other standards for large bank holding companies and designated non- bank holding companies. the volcker rule limits investment in hedge funds and private equity funds by banks and bank-holding companies. it will have a role in supervising financial utilities, such as clearing houses better important to the stability of the payment system. moreover, the fed will continue to play a very key role in helping the economy recover from the effects of the financial crisis. while the economy is wrong, it is not growing fast enough to help millions of americans who have lost their jobs as a result of this crisis. civilian unemployment remains

far too high. business investment demand as measured by debt on fixed non- residential investments and remained subdued because of excess capacity. in may, the core cpi increased by 9.9%. the economy is going to need all fed canp that the econom provide in the coming years. congress is trusting the federal reserve with tremendous responsibilities. now the fed must step up and use these new powers to serve the greater good of a nation. -- of our nation.

i sat on this committee for 30 years and i cannot think of another panel that has come before us that is this qualified to take on these responsibilities. i cannot thank you enough for your willingness to do so. aaron job, obviously, is to assess -- our job, always a, is to assess who is serving on the federal reserve board. i want to apologize in advance. i will be in and out in this process this morning because we will be considering the financial regulatory reform bill as well. i will be coming back and forth. i am confident he that the minority side will also step in here for this process. two of you have the benefit of a connecticut education. the third and a daughter made

grace. so you are in pretty good stead with me. [laughter] for that, let me turn to mr. shelby. >> the federal reserve is facing some of the biggest jaundice it has ever encountered. -- biggest challenges it has ever encountered. hundreds of institutions will likely fail before we recover fully. during the crisis, the fed created massive new liabilities and ballooned its balance sheet. earlier this year, the fed talked mostly about its strategy extraordinaryhiese support measures. discussion at the fed has been a mixed bag. some fear inflation while others fear deflationary.

some talk about on winding the fed massive holdings while others talk about asset purchases, further ballooning the fed belch huge. the nominees for positions on the federal reserve board -- the fed balance sheet. the nominees for positions on the federal reserve board are huge decisions for the united states the work of the federal reserve is highly specialized hand demands of the best qualified people in the country that we can produce. i would like to know if the people before us can meet that standard. also want to be assured that these people worked to increase the board to transparency, both to the public and to congress. many of my colleagues